The Art of Debate

There’s

a new sport being played in schools across Romania – debating. Actually

this sport comes in two variations. The team sport is debating and the

individual sport is public speaking. Over the last week I participated

in both – as chairman of the judges in the Romanian national final of

the English Speaking Union’s Public Speaking competition , and the final of the International Schools Debating Competition in Bucharest.

This

was my favourite sport when I was a student, at school and university.

In fact, I was in the Scottish Final of the English Speaking Union’s

debating competition back in 1986, so I knew just how the participants

were feeling when I was judging the competition here in Bucharest 25

years later! I call it a sport because it is just like any other. You

have to be extremely fit and agile – mentally – to play it successfully,

it requires lots of practice and good teamwork, it gives you a chance

to compete against your peers and it prepares you for life beyond school

and university. Debate is also a school for democracy. At Cambridge I

was President of the university’s debating society. The Cambridge Union is

one of the oldest debating society’s in the world, dating back to 1815

and its debating chamber is modelled on the House of Commons in

Westminster. Here, students learn and practice the art of parliamentary

debate, and many have gone on to do it for real as members of the

British Parliament and the Government.

this sport is very healthy for Romanian democracy. I am sure that the

extremely talented young speakers that I saw in action last week will go

on to be leaders in society in the future. And I was especially

impressed that, not only did they play this exacting sport to the

highest standards, they also played it in fluent English. When I was in

their place, I only ever attempted to debate in my mother tongue!