INTERHOUSE DEBATE COMPETITION ~ 17/8/15 @ FOUNTAINHEAD SCHOOL

Every year the school hosts numerous competitions like interhouse debate and interhouse ad-making and creativity enhancing competitions but I failed to show enough enthusiasm to participate in the events. However, when I participated in the Interhouse Debate competition, I learned that it was actually quite interesting and exciting. Debate had always been an area of my interest but this way I could actually grow in many ways, and hence the activity helped me identify my areas of growth and development. I learned that when I participate in such competitions, I not only refresh and sharpen my skills, but also keep learning new techniques in the area. For instance, because my stance in the debate was emotion-oriented, I learned to debate by making emotional claims – something I wasn’t inured to until then. It took effort, obviously. But new are learned with efforts and I enjoyed it heartily. I was supposed to debate against Capital Punishment with my group. We started to consider many points creatively during the research, and we also paid special attention to the ethical concerns associated with the issue. We put in our best for the debate, and it went on quite good. Everyone in our team got a chance, and hence we learned to cooperate effectively – something that was appreciated by the judges too. Thus, we learned the importance of collaboration and teamwork in such an event. We had divided the tasks of forming counter-arguments to points put forward by the opposite team, noting down the points put forward by them and speaking up in a convincing manner between our team members based on our strengths and weaknesses. Capital punishment was a global, ethical concern and during the debate we fought for what we thought was ethically more appropriate and suitable on a global scale. Should countries across the world allow killing people for crimes they commit? How are they different from the criminals in the first place then? Capital punishment is a pressing debate issue for governments across the world – and we considered the significance of this! This way we acted, and listed down the advantages and disadvantages and most importantly ethical concerns for a rational analysis of an issue that we thought had global significance. All in all, it was a great experience with lots to learn and to take back. I am looking forward to participating in more of such events…