Friday Headlines

26 March 2021

There was some lively debating going on this Wednesday night as EHS took its Debating Club online. This is the second time that the club has met online and whilst there have been some minor issues with Wi-Fi playing up and not being able to see who wants to speak next, there are some real benefits to doing it via Teams. Firstly, we are no longer confined to a rushed 20/ 30 minutes in our lunch hour and secondly, it is open to more students because we don’t have to compete with all the other clubs/activities that go on during the day at EHS!

The motion was ‘Independent Schools should have no place in a fair society’. Faradeet in Year 12 proposed the motion and spoke passionately about equality and fairness. Davina in Year 11 opposed the motion pointing out that inequality would not be eradicated by abolishing independent schools and that it was capitalism itself that caused a lack of fairness. The discussion was then opened up and a wide-ranging debate ensued about freedom of opportunity, the relative advantages and disadvantages of both state and independent school educations and how privilege works throughout society.

This complex discussion was superbly chaired by Lujayn. This role is much more difficult when we are all on Teams. With 22 participants and lots of people wanting to join in, Lujayn very ably gave everyone an opportunity and also voiced the contributions of those who used the Team chat facility.

As the lead teacher for the Debating Club, when Mrs Park told her husband the debate topic he asked ‘Isn’t that like turkeys voting for Christmas?’ However, once again EHS girls demonstrated that no subject invites a simplistic response. Indeed, this meant the discussion lasted an hour and a half and even then we only stopped because Mrs Park suggested we better end the call