
We were very impressed with our Socratic club sessions this weekend.
Both Junior and Senior members did extremely well - working on our key skill of speaking with conviction.
We also looked to incorporate rhetorical questions into the contributions throughout the debates.
The current affairs round-up took in the Turkish election results; the resignation of Boris Johnson; further Train strikes; and New-Zealand airline suggestions of weighing passengers.
It was fascinating to see the different voting patterns of each group. Whilst the junior group did not want more political uncertainty with by-elections - voting 86% against Johnson resigning; the senior voted overwhelmingly for his resignation. Likewise the junior group saw weighing passengers as potentially discriminatory and voted by the same margin at both tellings against the idea; whereas the senior group voted unanimously in favour of the concept.
Our set-piece debate of the day focussed on Technology in schools and AI with the motion ‘this house believes we have too much technology in schools’. Concerns were raised about screen time, attention problems, being too reliant on appliances, losing traditional skills and eyesight and headache issues. In the senior group Chat GPT dominated the event along with the issues of social media and computer game addiction. Voting changed in the junior group with some splendid argumentation and active listening - moving from 67/33 against to 50/50 in the second telling. The senior group by contrast accepted the problems but felt that the benefits far outweighed the risks and voted against the motion each time.
Well done all on a timely and fascinating set of debates and discussions.
Comentarios