Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2013

/ 09

It’s not up for debate: Developing logical reasoning

ARTICLE

MRS ANNE BYRNE, DEBATING CO–ORDINATOR

AUTHOR

and 2012. This year two teams won through to the Grand Finals. The Year 8 girls took out the title with a unanimous decision and the Year 9 girls were narrowly defeated with the only split decision of the evening.

‘WE ONLY FAIL WHEN WE stop trying.’ This was the premise put forward by three Year 10 debaters who had one hour to justify the claim that ‘we have not failed our indigenous people’. They went on to demolish the opposition with a

IMAGE QDU Grand Final winners: Team 8.1 – Isabel Nolan, Abirami Somasundaram, Cara Whiting and Alice Dunn

IMAGE QDU Grand Final runners-up: Team 9.3 – Lucinda Jolly, Caitlin O’Meara, Anna Ruddell, Phoebe Henderson and Nicole Andronis

reasoned attack setting out how Australia is attempting to right the wrongs of the past. That day, we saw the realisation of one of the goals of Girls Grammar debating: that girls have no need to echo the strident aggression of boys to make their voices heard. So who are our girls? To answer this question we have to consider a little data. According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies (2012) around sixty per cent of girls come from one or two children families. Ausport (2013) tells us that less than fifty-five per cent of girls play a team sport, with barely twenty per cent continuing beyond age 15. Meanwhile, over eighty per cent of their male counterparts are pursuing team glory on a weekly basis. Furthermore, over forty per cent of girls attend single-sex secondary schools. Culturally, girls are encouraged to see arguing as a form of emotional communication and bonding. Boys, however, see arguing as an exercise in logical reasoning — a strategic means to an end, with winning as the goal. Tying the facts together, we see a significant population of young women who have very little day-to-day experience of how males compete, negotiate and work. This is an issue because girls emerge into workplaces where power is still disproportionally held by males. Debating at Girls Grammar aims to develop a more flexible and open-minded approach to thinking; to provide opportunities for scaffolded risk-taking; and to offer an insight into how males think, argue and compete. As well, it builds understanding of how teams function and, perhaps most importantly, debating provides each girl with the opportunity to find her own voice. The Queensland Debating Union competition has been running for over forty years and traditionally has been dominated by boys’ schools. But this dominance has been challenged in recent years. Girls Grammar teams have reached the Finals in seven of those years, with wins in 2011

Those intrepid Year 10 debaters who never stop trying won the 2011 QDU State Finals, one member of the team won the 2012 Australian Individual Debating Championships, and in 2013 the team won the QUT Business School Brisbane Girls Competition. In 2009 Girls Grammar established the Brisbane Girls Debating Competition. The competition has proved an overwhelming success, extending into the Senior School with over sixty teams competing annually. And let’s not forget Interhouse debating. Year 8 students across all Houses compete for four weeks in a colourful and energetic competition. In the past five years School debating numbers have doubled to the point that one in nine girls debates. This may be our most exciting achievement of all. Debating also offers older debaters and alumnae leadership and mentoring opportunities. The Senior students run workshops, assist with selection and contribute to the Debating Newsletter. Alumnae return as coaches and workshop contributors and for School Debating functions. They provide exemplary role models and inspiration for the younger students. So, whether it is Blue-spotted Ribbon Day, a comedy debate, or the mental rush at the end of a ‘short prep’ debate, we aim to offer an insight into how the world works — along with a little fun and, ultimately, a pathway for our girls’ voices to be heard loud and clear.

REFERENCES Ausport. (2013). Australian sport, the pathway to success . Retrieved August 16, 2013, from www.ausport.gov.au/_data/assets/pdf_file/001 Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2012). Family facts and figures . Retrieved August 20, 2013, from www.aifs.gov.au/institute/info/charts

SPRING ISSUE / 2013