At least that is what I, the author of this article, believe, and I will try to convince all of you, the readers, of this.
The ability to think freely and diversely, to see a problem from different, most often opposite, points of view — this is a characteristic of an educated person, a member of a modern democratic society. And considering that the building of a democratic state in Ukraine is the main issue of today, the upbringing of such people should become problem number one for our state and public institutions. There are several ways to achieve this. One of them, common in Europe and the States, is the game "Debate." It is debates that allow, in a fairly simple form, the transmission of the most valuable knowledge and skills in modern society: to form, reveal and defend one's position on various issues, to understand, analyze and convincingly refute the opponent's point of view, to combine the ability to speak correctly with the ability to listen correctly.
Seeking to achieve the above-mentioned values, a number of Volyn public organizations tried to introduce the game of debate to Lutsk youth. On the initiative of the Center for Public Media and Educational Work "Nasha Sprava," with the financial support of the Department for Family and Youth Affairs of the Regional State Administration, the project "Intellectual Game 'Youth Debates'" was implemented in the city of Lutsk. The goal of the project was to teach school youth to play debates correctly and beneficially for themselves. The direct executors and organizers were youth public organizations — the Association of Young Reformers and the Volyn Regional Branch of the Christian Democratic Youth of Ukraine. Considering that most schoolchildren did not know the essence of the game of Debate and the rules for conducting it, it was decided to hold, as the first stage of project implementation, a training seminar for the game of Debate. It took place on November 10-11 at the general education school-gymnasium No. 4. Its participants were students from three Lutsk schools — the third, fourth and twenty-sixth.
During the seminar, representatives of AMoRe and the VRO CDYU tried to tell the students about the main aspects of the game, its rules and principles. The lecturers emphasized the skills that one must possess for proper play, explained the functions of each team player, showed how to properly construct speeches and gave practical recommendations for preparing for the game.
In order for the "training" not to seem too boring (since the schoolchildren received a lot of new, but partly dry, information), the seminar participants took part in active games, which undoubtedly added cheerfulness. Also, the schoolchildren were able to debate several times during the seminar, thereby reinforcing the acquired knowledge in practice. In particular, four topics were offered to the students as homework, on which they had to build their speeches affirming or denying the statement. For example, such a topic as "Legalization of soft drugs: for or against" aroused lively "healthy" interest, and the arguments presented were quite original and interesting. The schoolchildren worked very actively during the "brainstorming" on the topic "Is it comfortable to sleep on the ceiling?" One could hear various arguments. Some said that the ceiling is not a very comfortable place for sleeping, because gravity acts, and also a girlfriend on the side can't hold on (!!!), others said that sleeping on the ceiling is extreme, so an adrenaline rush is guaranteed, and it's warm there and you can see everything, and it's convenient — there's somewhere to put your legs, and the cornice is right nearby!
In addition to valuable skills and useful knowledge, the schoolchildren met their peers from other schools and had a pleasant time. And since the project plan envisioned holding two games after the training seminar, the topics of the games were immediately chosen and the teams were determined.
And although the process of preparing for the game was not as simple as it had seemed earlier to the organizers and the players themselves, the debate on the topic "Tattooing and piercing — an outrage against the body" was conducted successfully. The game took place on November 29 in the auditorium of School-Gymnasium No. 4. And despite certain organizational "hiccups" (which led to a small number of spectators), the game turned out to be quite interesting. It is worth noting that the participants of the game gave their maximum to defend their position. This probably determined the judges' difficult choice of the game's winners. And although the debaters did not lack mistakes either, the project organizers noted the good mastery of Debate game skills by the participants of the training seminar. By the way, the proposition team, which defended the thesis of the game, won. But this is not of any serious significance. Because in Debates the main thing is not victory. After all, the game of Debate is first of all — learning. And as the participants of the game themselves noted — they learned a lot. And no one was offended either. In addition to satisfaction and a mass of impressions, the schoolchildren received souvenir gifts from the project organizers as a memento of their participation in the game.
Summing up the results of these two events, the conclusion suggests itself that the game of Debate is truly useful and necessary for schoolchildren. After all, it is precisely this that contributes to the effective formation in a young person of the abilities to think logically and critically, to adequately assess a situation, to respect the opinion of another, to notice contradictions in seemingly the most perfect statements, to convincingly prove one's thoughts and views to other persons or a wide audience.
Therefore, it is quite possible that starting next year this project (in an improved form and with the involvement of a larger number of schoolchildren) will be implemented in the city of Lutsk. One believes that this will be so.
Until next meetings at the game of Debate!