The IGS Year 5 Debate Team hosted St Aloysius College in a head to head contest hosted in the IGS Bibliothèque. Each team won one of two rounds. The statement theme for the competition was “teachers are better than books.”
For the first round, IGS students played the role of the affirmative team, and the St Aloysius team acted as the opposition. Roles were reversed in the second round. The contest was adjudicated by IGS High School student Liv Rey Laaksonen, who provided detailed feedback to the students after each round.
Taking the opposition stance and arguing that books are better than teachers is surely difficult in front of an audience of teachers, but this was all in the design of the program. “What we wanted to do there was teach the kids that, in debate, it’s not about which one you prefer,” said Ms Catherine Swinton. “Sometimes you are given things you don’t necessarily believe in, and you have to put an argument together.”
After the competition, students and teachers enjoyed afternoon tea together.
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