11 Oct 2012: DM alumnus in Independent blog
"We may have a right to education but a good education is much more a personal endeavour than a right" argues alumnus James Shaw
We’re delighted to see that former Debating Matters competitor James Shaw, now an alumnus and University of Oxford undergraduate, has a really interesting piece in the Independent newspaper’s Independent Voices blog.
James argues university students should be seeking education, not satisfaction, and that university allows them to pursue and examine ideas in a way a more prescriptive A level curriculum doesn’t. In his article James highlights what he gained from this experience of taking part in Debating Matters:
“The extensive preparation undertaken…gave me the opportunity to learn about a current issue with a depth rarely encouraged at school level. It allowed me to find a sustainable position on the issue and then proceed to thrash out how to present this argument coherently to an audience of students, all of whom had as strong personal convictions on this divisive issue as I did…The freedom to think about a topical issue in an independent, principled way is one of the most appealing aspects of debating.”
You can read James’ article here and do comment on the blog and let us know what you think - whether you agree or disagree with him!
