My Debate Topic: Children’s Rights
Resolution: Until the age of 18, parents should have the right to determine all matters (even life and death) for their child
| PRO | CON |
| Chazai | Jada |
| Sage | Tiffany |
Our debate dealt with whether or not children should be allowed to make decisions for themselves. Chazai and Sage argued that they shouldn’t, while Tiffany and I argued that they should. This was an interesting topic, especially considering that these decisions included matters of life and death. Some points for the affirmative were that children’s brains were not fully developed, parents had more life experience, and children lack the necessary maturity. The negative argued that it goes against human rights, that not all parents have their children’s best interests at heart, and that decision-making is a skill that helps development.
My Debate Reflection
I really enjoyed doing debates. My speaking skills aren’t the best, and I tend to lack confidence when public speaking. Debating really helped me with this, and I found that by the end of it, I had gained skills with public speaking, and ended up doing fairly well. I’m most proud of my cross-questioning. It required me to think quickly and respond to my opponent’s arguments, as well as be deliberate and confident in my questioning. When doing debates, I worked through my issue with speaking too quickly, and I feel that I was able to speak at a much better pace in the final debate.
My Favourite Quote
“Allowing parents to make all decisions for their children means allowing honour killings.”
– Tiffany
I chose to share this quote because I felt that this point was a crucial turning point in our debate. It was well thought out and hard to disprove.
Works Cited
Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. What Do We Know about Physical and Non-Physical Childhood Maltreatment in Canada? 25 Jan. 2023, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/36-28-0001/2023001/article/00001-eng.htm.
“Helping Kids Make Decisions.” Child Mind Institute, https://childmind.org/article/helping-kids-make-decisions/. Accessed 24 May 2023.
Heritage, Canadian. Rights of Children. 23 Oct. 2017, https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/rights-children.html.
News ·, Paige Parsons ·. CBC. “The Younger Their Child, the Less Likely Parents Will Want Them to Get COVID-19 Vaccine, Survey Finds | CBC News.” CBC, 22 July 2022, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/survey-intentions-parents-covid-19-vaccine-1.6525642.
Parental Decision Making | UW Department of Bioethics & Humanities. https://depts.washington.edu/bhdept/ethics-medicine/bioethics-topics/detail/72#:~:text=Parents%20have%20the%20responsibility%20and,best%20interests%20of%20the%20child. Accessed 24 May 2023.
“Past Experience Is Invaluable For Complex Decision Making, Brain Research Shows.” ScienceDaily, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090513130930.htm. Accessed 24 May 2023.
“Romina Ashrafi: Outrage in Iran after Girl Murdered ‘for Eloping.’” BBC News, 27 May 2020. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52811631.
“The Teen Brain: 7 Things to Know.” National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-teen-brain-7-things-to-know. Accessed 24 May 2023.
WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard. https://covid19.who.int. Accessed 24 May 2023.
Core Competency Reflection
Examples of where I communicate clearly and purposefully can be seen in my speech. I was clear and rational, and I feel that my points were well explained and tied in well to our side of the argument.
I knew my partner and I were working well together when we collaborated to take notes during the debate. Since we both got information on the other team’s points, we were able to work together to create solid cross-questions and rebuttal statements.
I used criteria and/or feedback to improve my debate; evidence of that is my speaking abilities. In the first debate, I talked far too quickly and didn’t emphasize my points, so my speech wasn’t as impactful as it could have been. In my second speech, I used the feedback I was given to improve upon my speaking, and it showed in my presence at the podium.
An example of where I built upon someone else’s ideas in the debate unit is in the portion of our debate where we brought up honour killings. We had it planned out so that one of us would bring them up in our main speech, and the other would expand upon it in their cross-questioning.