Our last Socratic club sessions for the summer term saw a splendid array of debating and discussion points from both junior and senior members. Well done all on such outstanding contributions!
We began by focussing on the key skills/qualities of an effective speaker and how to make productive/impressive POIs.
We then turned to the history and politics behind the Scottish Honours - the legacy of Mary Queen of Scots, the new Elizabeth Crown and the Stone of Destiny.
Our debating centred on the growth of Tesla Car sales and electric cars more generally - is this a good thing? Are electric cars green? Should we have more electric cars?
The voting showed our membership evenly split at 50/50 on the subject. Car batteries and making use of old cars played heavily in the voting.
We then debated the motion/question 'who should make or push for car batteries to be recyclable?'
The Government: 13% / 22%
Tesla: 50% / 33%
Scientists: 13% / 11%
People: 25% / 33%
In both polls it was clear that Tesla should do more and 'us' the people should be applying more pressure for change.
Finally, we looked at the rights to protest and the police carrying guns on the back of Just Stop Oil and the Riots in Paris (we touched briefly on the Suffragettes and how we reflect on those protests now). 67% of our membership voted in favour of the right to peaceful, non-violent protest; but 33% felt that protesting was disruptive and unhappiness and comments should be directed to MPs and Parliament. The group was more evenly split on police having to hand lethal weapons.
At the end of each session we covered very briefly Rishi Sunak's plans for more NHS doctors and nurses and whether we would be happy to pay more tax for this.
Wishing everyone a fantastic summer break!
We look forward to resuming sessions in September - our forthcoming term dates can be found below.
Autumn Term Dates 2023
3rd September
Junior Group (11 am)/Senior Group (4 pm
10th September
Junior Group (11 am)/Senior Group (4 pm)
24th September
Junior Group (11 am)/Senior Group (4 pm)
8th October
Junior Group (11 am)/Senior Group (4 pm)
5th November
Socratic Club - Workshop on English Language & Vocabulary
(Junior and Senior) (11 am)
10th December
Junior Group (11 am)/Senior Group (4 pm)
Workshops & Events
14th October
Museum Tour TBC
(In Person)
(Junior and Senior)
19th November
Interview Workshop & Group Debating
(Junior and Senior) (11 am)
26th November
Socratic Club Autumn Competition & Certification
(In Person)
(Junior and Senior)
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