Teach Secondary - Issue 14.6

Louisa Searle , Director of Education at the ESU, explains how oracy can help young people feel more connected and engaged with the wider world T hat headline poses a bold question, but as I watched the recent finals of the English-Speaking Union’s Schools’ Mace debating competition, I believed more than ever that debate can do just that. Earlier this year, the hit Netflix series Adolescence – in which a 13-year-old boy violently kills a girl who had shunned him, much to his family’s disbelief – got everyone talking about the pernicious effects of social media. More importantly, it prompted conversations over what to do about it. When interviewed by CNN, the series’ co-creator, Jack Thorne, said, “ There aren’t simple answers to this, but the biggest answer is let [your children] talk, or find a way to get them talking, or get inside what they’re worrying about. ” At its heart, debate is a great way of doing just that – getting young people talking about the things they care about. As one of this year’s competitors put it, “ I ABOUT THE AUTHOR Louisa Searle is director of education at The English-Speaking Union; for more information, visit esu.org think that people sometimes don’t realise that they’re debating. Whether it’s the newAriana Grande album or foreign policy, if you’re engaging with the other person’s viewpoints, listening to them and countering with your own thoughts and arguments, then you’re debating. ” No‘right’or‘wrong’ Will AI-generated content (the topic of this year’s grand final) weaken our critical thinking and creativity? Or is it, in fact, sharpening our thinking, liberating us frommundane work and providing a fast-track to innovation, advanced critical thinking and higher-level skills? Are gene-edited embryos a good way of preventing suffering for thousands of people each year, or a dangerous step towards designer babies and ‘othering’? Should mobile phones be banned for under-16s, or are they now vital for children’s safety? Such questions, and countless others like them, matter, with answers that will define our futures. Crucially, for teenagers who can struggle with school and writing, there’s no essay- writing required, and no ‘right’ answer. I firmly believe that, when so much of the curriculum is geared towards ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ answers, simply understanding this concept can be transformational. It’s okay to be clever A good debate – whether in a club or in lesson time – offers the chance to weigh up the pros and cons of an issue and talk them through from all angles. Inmost cases debaters are assigned a side. This prevents personal feelings from coming into it, while also building in empathy and reducing the possibility of any backlash. As Simrah, a student and grand finalist fromWoodcote High School told us, “ Through doing the research, you find out things that might be the opposite of what you originally thought. You get to understand a subject – it’s a really interesting and enjoyable process.” By its very nature, no debate will ever swing everybody – but then that’s the whole point. In life, most things take place via compromise, persuasion and discussion, rather than by sticking to extremes. Debate further encourages teamwork. This year’s final featured competitors who would have been in Y7 or Y8 when COVID first struck, with two of the teams having had to self-organise in order to take part. Plus, as with any competitive activity, it enables young people to meet and mix with peers from other schools and areas, helping them discover that they have far more in common than they might have thought. Most hearteningly of all, it can help students to ‘find their people’. This was vividly brought home to me by a mother who was watching her son, a pupil at a state school in Grantham, Lincolnshire. She remarked, “I think in a lot of schools, it’s not okay to be clever. Debating allows boys to say, ‘Actually, I’m not really into rugby, or cricket, or football – I just like reading books and having an opinion on something.’ It lets them embrace the fact that they’re clever and shout about it. ” Now, more than ever, we must challenge the idea that debate is the preserve of the elite and encourage more young people to give it a go. Simply telling young boys that Andrew Tate and the like are wrong won’t necessarily work – but giving them a voice, encouraging them to explore the issues themselves and having them talk about their thoughts and feelings, so that they realise they’re not alone – well, that just might... Could debate dissolve the manosphere? 45 teachwire.net/secondary O R A C Y