A team of brave staff members at The Sir Henry Parkes Memorial Public School dusted off their debating skills and took on worthy adversaries in a team of their students at a great debate on Wednesday, November 7 attended by the whole school and community members.
The topic on the table was ‘Should uniforms be mandatory for all staff and students’. The students were privately in favour of mandatory uniforms and therefore embraced their assigned ‘Yes’ position with passion.
The staff, on the other hand, may have been hampered by mixed feelings over their ‘No’ position. They may also been hampered by some rustiness in their skill set, although team member Kim Rhodes suggested their spouses may feel they’ve kept those skills up-to-date.
Adjudicator Wayne Lusty couldn’t pick a winner in the lead-up to the debate, and ultimately his caution was well-placed as there was just one point separating winner and runnerup.
After trading theoretical blows over socio-economic considerations, bullying, school pride and respect, belonging, being easy to spot on an excursion, body issues, staff being mistaken for students and personal style, the ‘No’ team won this debate by a very slim margin.
Mr Lusty said both teams performed well, but he was particularly impressed with the progress made by those making up the students team. He said several of them could barely speak to a teacher a short time ago, and now they’re debating them.
