School Debating in Scotland is a competitive activity taken up on an extracurricular basis by many schools across the country. The main format of schools debating in Scotland is British Parliamentry, and competitons in this format are mostly run by universities across Scotland, although more national university competitions, such as Oxford and Cambridge, hold regional rounds in Scotland as well. The BP format of debating consists of teams of two from individual schools. However, School debaters also have the opportunity to debate in the Worlds format of debating, if they are selected to represent their country as Team Scotland at the World Schools Debating Championships. Each year, 12 school pupils are chosen to trial and from this group a team of 5 is chosen.
Scotland has won this tournament 4 times, in 1990,1999, 2007 and 2012, and reached the outrounds of the competiton every year since they began competing in it, except in the 2013 tournament, held in Antalya,Turkey. Comprehensive debating resources for Scottish schools debaters and their coaches were written by the English-Speaking Union Scotland last year and can be found at Learning & Teaching Scotland.
Read more about School Debating In Scotland: The Law Society Donald Dewar Memorial Debating Tournament, The Courier and Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland Schools Junior Debating Competition, The ESU Scotland Juniors Competition, Glasgow University Union Schools Debating Competition, Other Tournaments, Website and Information
Famous quotes containing the words school, debating and/or scotland:
“At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of cultivating domestic affections, very early rush into the libertinism which destroys the constitution before it is formed; hardening the heart as it weakens the understanding.”
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)
“Scepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things. A sad case for him when all that he can manage to believe is something he can button in his pocket, and with one or the other organ eat and digest! Lower than that he will not get.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“Four and twenty at her back
And they were a’ clad out in green;
Tho the King of Scotland had been there
The warst o’ them might hae been his Queen.
On we lap and awa we rade
Till we cam to yon bonny ha’
Whare the roof was o’ the beaten gold
And the floor was o’ the cristal a’.”
—Unknown. The Wee Wee Man (l. 21–28)