50p
Debate
According to Confucius, the purpose of human life is to obey the duty to become better humans. Even though many debaters end up in professions that seem to have diverged from that goal, such as law and politics, our debaters adopted this goal in the year of lockdown.
Better human beings pursue Confucianist Ren, which consist of six elements interwoven in one’s life. The first, respectfulness, was shown in debaters generally learning how to politely request a point of information in a digital format debate, such as with using Zoom, by speaking out the name of the opposing debater, or interrupting with the word “point”, rather than the traditional teacup pose (one hand on head and the other outstretched in open palm) which worked in real life debates, but was unseen on screen.
The second element of Ren, trustworthiness, was shown October 10, when over 50 students took part in the UVIC online tournament for novices and they all insisted on showing up for academic classes in between their debate rounds as they were still on campus. Five teams won awards for their performances, but Maxine P, stood out as the most promising new debater. Sharing the top qualification score, Chiara Lea, Eamon R and Kennedy McDiarmid competed in the International Independent School Public Speaking Competition, also in October. Their quick-witted responses constitute the third element of Confucian Ren. The online British Parliamentary tournament and the Semiahmoo World’s style debate, both in late October, involved a cumulative total of seven teams (28 debaters) diligently preparing for these demanding University-style debates constituted the fourth Ren element. After Dr Sasse, father of Olivia ’21 gave all debaters a great primer on QALY’s (Quality Adjusted Life Year) all of our class took part in Regionals and a record 24 debaters qualified to compete in Provincials in February. It has been a demanding year. Demonstrating an enormous amount of tolerance and generosity - the last two elements of Confucian Ren - our 100 debaters managed to see the world’s contentious issues from a more balanced perspective, emphasizing the value of free speech and open, contested debate rather than closet hostility. We look forward to being less-masked next year, but know that the skills the students have fostered continue their progressive development. Mr Neil Bryant, Debate Coach
Better human beings pursue Confucianist Ren, which consist of six elements interwoven in one’s life. The first, respectfulness, was shown in debaters generally learning how to politely request a point of information in a digital format debate, such as with using Zoom, by speaking out the name of the opposing debater, or interrupting with the word “point”, rather than the traditional teacup pose (one hand on head and the other outstretched in open palm) which worked in real life debates, but was unseen on screen.
The second element of Ren, trustworthiness, was shown October 10, when over 50 students took part in the UVIC online tournament for novices and they all insisted on showing up for academic classes in between their debate rounds as they were still on campus. Five teams won awards for their performances, but Maxine P, stood out as the most promising new debater. Sharing the top qualification score, Chiara Lea, Eamon R and Kennedy McDiarmid competed in the International Independent School Public Speaking Competition, also in October. Their quick-witted responses constitute the third element of Confucian Ren. The online British Parliamentary tournament and the Semiahmoo World’s style debate, both in late October, involved a cumulative total of seven teams (28 debaters) diligently preparing for these demanding University-style debates constituted the fourth Ren element. After Dr Sasse, father of Olivia ’21 gave all debaters a great primer on QALY’s (Quality Adjusted Life Year) all of our class took part in Regionals and a record 24 debaters qualified to compete in Provincials in February. It has been a demanding year. Demonstrating an enormous amount of tolerance and generosity - the last two elements of Confucian Ren - our 100 debaters managed to see the world’s contentious issues from a more balanced perspective, emphasizing the value of free speech and open, contested debate rather than closet hostility. We look forward to being less-masked next year, but know that the skills the students have fostered continue their progressive development. Mr Neil Bryant, Debate Coach