2022年度第８回即興型英語ディベート

On February 15th (Wed.), we held the last English debate session of this academic year.

First, all students took part in a final round. The motion for the debate was "Anonymous writing on the Internet should be prohibited." (インターネットへの匿名の書き込みは禁止するべきである。) Like many of the debates this year, the students were very active and delivered detailed, well-constructed arguments in powerful voices. There were also many POIs tried around the room. After finishing the debate and receiving comments from the judges, we prepared for this year's exhibition debate.

Every year, we select the best debaters to take part in an exhibition debate. We select the debaters based on the results throughout the year and consider the following: the number of debates participated in, the number won, the number of POI awards achieved, and the number of Best Debater Awards earned. This year, we selected the top six - Mr. O, Mr. I and Ms. H were the Government Team and Ms. N, Mr. N and Ms. O were the Opposition Team - because those members had collected a large number of Best Debater Awards, so we were expecting a high-level exhibition! It was explained that the debate would be decided by three votes - one from a combination of all the student votes, one from a member of our Global Research Division, and one from the PDA lead staff member.

The exhibition debate motion was "Government should punish individuals who write fake news." (政府はフェイクニュースを書いた個人を罰するべきである。) Our best debaters did not disappoint us and we were able to watch a very high-level battle. The speakers had well-constructed arguments, powerful rebuts, and excellent delivery as they were watched by their fellow students, Global Research Division members, and other teachers who had come to this final match. After they had finished, the judges had a difficult time deciding in the result. The students gave victory to the Opposition team, the Global staff gave it to the Government team, and finally the PDA staff gave it to ... THE OPPOSITION TEAM!!! Congratulations to Ms. N, Mr. N and Ms. O!

Finally, we ended with comments from the PDA staff and Global Division staff, which can be summed up as "very good job everyone!"

Overall, this year has been a fantastic year for English debate at Hibarigaoka Gakuen. We have had a very large group of students taking part and the quality of the English and the debates has been very high. Also we have started to incorporate some junior high school activities. We are strongly looking forward to building on this year's foundation next year.

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