DEBATING FOR FUN vs. DEBATING COMPETITIVELY
If you, or your school, have never debated before, we hope that this website and these materials have shown you that you can have fun and develop skills that will aid you in many ways (not just in debating). We also hope that you do consider starting your own schools debating team.
If your school already had a debating team prior to you using this website, perhaps these materials will add an extra dimension to how you currently brainstorm, research motions and generally prepare for a debate.
For both groups, if you have never entered a competition with other schools, you may be wondering:-
Will my school debating team be good enough to debate competitively if we use the materials?
We understand that the word “competition” can make teams and the individual speakers question their strengths, their ability to “compete” and most importantly, their ability to WIN! However, we hope that in following the sessions in our materials, you will learn that debating can be fun, that it is the taking part that counts, and that is there is much more to be gained than becoming the “winner”!:-
- Many of the teams who enter our competition have entered in previous years, and of course their aim is to improve their performance year-on-year. Your school may not win the competition the first year you enter, but neither did most schools, and wouldn’t it be a great achievement to get through the first rounds?
- There are other debating competitions in Scotland BUT the Society is proud to say that our competition is the biggest in terms of the number of teams who take part. Over 150 teams took part last year and they all had different levels of experience. Our competition is not like others that demand experienced teams
- Our competition is about inviting as many students and schools as possible to consider debating and take part
- We believe that by following these materials you can reach the standards required for the first round (at least)!
We would be delighted if you did enter this year’s competition. If you don’t feel ready this year, please persevere with our materials, debating and public speaking in school, and enjoy the practise - there’s always our 2008/2009 competition!
