Video transcript
Defining a primary school debating topic – 2. Indigo Crosweller

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INDIGO CROSWELLER: Hi, guys. I'm Indigo. I have done debating for lots and lots of years now. I did it all through primary school and high school. In high school, I was lucky enough to do lots of different championships. I think we won the competition when I was in Year 10, and I did a few other things throughout the years which were an awesome experience. And it really helped me throughout my whole life in any capacity that I'm speaking in.

So, today we're going to do a little bit of workshopping on definitions, and the topic that I'm going to define with you today is that teachers should have to participate in sport and exercise classes just like students. I think it was the most popular topic in last year's Premier's Debating Challenge in primary schools. So, we're going to do that together. And we're going to think through some of the things that you might like to think about when you're coming up with definitions in your own debate.

So, let's have a little think now about this topic. So, the first thing that I'm going to start thinking about is, what is the big issue that we're trying to solve in this topic? And I think the biggest issue is that a lot of teachers don't get much exercise because they're spending so much time preparing for classes and doing marking and things like that. So, I think the biggest issue is about teacher health and teachers' fitness. So, that's the big issue that we're going to deal with.

So, let's think about the definition for a second. Now remember that when we're thinking about definitions, we want to answer three questions. We're going to answer, where is this change going to happen? We're going to say, what are the details that we need to know to make the change? And the third question is, when will this change come into place?

So, for the first question, where is this change going to happen? If any of you have done the workshop day with Tony and some other random people, maybe some of you have seen me before doing it, the change is going to happen in the biggest possible group in Australia. So, would we just make it in primary schools in New South Wales? Probably not, because there are teachers all across Australia. There are primary schools all across Australia.

But there are also teachers in high school, so we want to make it all schools, primary, secondary, private and public schools in Australia, all of the teachers. So, it's going to be every teacher in every school around Australia, the biggest possible group. So, that's where. Now we've ticked off the first question.

The second question we want to ask is, what are the details that we're going to need to make this change? So, let's think about some of the details that we might need. Well, I think the first thing that we might think is, well, what if some teachers are too good or too competitive at the sport, and they injure the students because they play too hard and they get too competitive? So, maybe we should make a detail like, well, teachers won't do the classes. They'll just pretend to do the classes along the side, or they'll play a different version of the game just with the teachers.

But if we think about that for a second, that's going to be a problem, because I'm going to want to make the argument about why this makes teachers and students get along better and learn how to participate together and cooperate. But they can't learn that if teachers are in a separate game to the students, so we probably don't want to make that change. We probably want to say that, no, teachers will already know that they shouldn't tackle a student to the ground and break their leg. So, we probably don't need that detail. It's probably unnecessary.

What are in the different detail? Well what if a student is really good at the game, and they tackle a teacher, and the teacher breaks their leg? Well, in that instance, we can probably say it will just be like normal classes for students, where if a teacher is injured, they can bring a note, and they can sit out of the class.

What about things like, well, should we make teachers wear the sport uniform when they're playing these games, because what if they're wearing a dress to work that day and they don't have anything that they can play rugby in? Well, again, we probably don't need that detail because teachers will probably be able to figure it out themselves that they're going to have to play rugby in school sport, so they'll bring along a change of clothes or some running gear or some runners to play that game in.

So, the details that we probably really need is that teachers will have to participate in sport with their students in the games, and that if the teacher is injured, they'll bring along a note. Those are probably all of the details that we need. Everything else is pretty much just self-explanatory.

So, now that we've got all of the details that we need, the last question that we need to ask ourselves is, when is this change going to happen? So, I know that you guys are back at school recently for Term 2. So, maybe the best change that we can make is not next term, because that's probably too far away. We've got a whole 10 or 11 weeks until that happens.

So, maybe a better change is to say, this will happen from the start of next week, because within a week, we'll have given teachers enough notice to maybe go out and buy themselves a pair of runners. We'll give them enough notice to mentally prepare themselves for being beaten by all of their kids at sport. So, we'll say that this change will happen a week from today. That's probably all of the details that we need.

So, let's do the first two steps of a first affirmative speech on this topic now. Remember that those steps are context and the definition. So, I'll do it now, and then you guys can give it a go with a different topic later.

So, first, context. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a massive problem. Teachers are spending hours marking and preparing their lessons, and they don't get to go outside and get any exercise. That's why we're here to argue that teachers should have to participate in school sport and exercise classes just like their students.

Where is this change going to happen? This change is going to happen in all Australian schools, both primary schools and high schools. It's going to be across private and public schools.

What are the details? The details are that teachers will have to participate in all of the sports and exercise classes that their students do. But if a teacher is injured, they'll have to bring along a note that says that they can't participate because of their injury, just like the students.

When will this change happen? This change will start from the beginning of next week so that teachers have time to buy a pair of runners and prepare themselves for all of the exercise that they're going to have to do.