School Workshop

In December, I had the privilege of visiting Adam Law’s classroom in a local high school to see some of our learning resources in action, and to pilot a new workshop format for high school students. It was good fun, and I was very impressed by the high quality of Mr. Law’s students thoughts, comments, and contributions to what we were doing.

We first worked through the initial workbook on “What Is The Purpose of Debate?” and discussed many great examples of public and private debates the students had witnessed — some which went poorly and others that went better. We discussed the question of why we even engage in debate in our society.

Then we used these reflections to begin to identify principles that the students believed would make public discussion of controversial issues go better if everyone tried to follow them. That provided material for a draft charter for responsible debate for the school. And we concluded by debating each principle, thereby improving both the overall charter and our shared understanding of what we’re doing when we engage in debate.