Dear Nelson Mandela community
Dear Debating Matters Group
This year our debating team (Alec, James, Naomi and Yara) were tasked again with a debate that was hosted by Freiblickinstitut e.V. and the University of Applied Sciences Europe in a lovely venue in Mitte.
12 Berliner gymnasiums were invited to participate. Each school had to prepare for four debates and to win at least two of the debates in order to get into the semi-finals.
Our school won one of the debates and lost one. The first debate was “Monuments of controversial historical figures should remain”. Our team was debating for the motion. In the second debate on “Social media Sites should filter out fake news stories”, our team was given the position against the motion. Our team defended both positions gloriously.
Unfortunately they won only one of the debates (Monuments of controversisl historical figures should remain), and could not do the semi finals. In the true Nelson Mandela School spirit however, they helped the other teams that continued debating by supplying them with arguments that they had already prepared for the semi-final and final debates. The winners of the debate this year were Hans Carossa Gymnasium.
I want to thank my debating team for their dedication and very hard work, often on Saturdays and Sundays. It was fun working with you and I hope that we can continue next year.
Please find below the topics that were debated on the day as well as links to the Debating Matters website as well as to the photos taken on the day.
Topics debated:
- Social media sites should filter out fake news stories
- Monuments of controversial historical figures should remain
- Medical record sharing should be welcomed and not feared
- Universal Basic Income is not a solution to our social economic problems
- Populism is a threat to democracy
