DEBATING
OF
T he College has something of a history with debating: over the past three years, our students have made an unsurpassed impact on the yearly series of competitions run by universities. 2014 and 2015 saw Dulwich win Oxford Schools, Cambridge Schools and Durham Schools twice over; and four of our debaters also qualified for membership of the England World Schools team, which competes at the annual championships held everywhere from Thailand to Singapore, and, this year, Stuttgart. Now the DC Debating Society has done it once again. In the autumn of this year, Dulwich pupil Kenza Wilks was not only accepted onto the England Team, but nominated the captain. As one of three students who competed this year at the Old Parkland Debating Competition in Dallas, Texas, I am able to give some insight, perhaps, into what it is like to be part of this success, and how it is achieved. The Texas competition was a unique experience for us due to a number of reasons: firstly, where previously we had been used to debating against other UK schools, we would now be debating against other national teams such as Mexico and Canada. Secondly, though, and perhaps more significantly, having been accustomed to UK competitions populated by young, liberal students, we were dismayed to learn that we would be expected to oppose the motion, ‘This House believes that limiting access to guns is a valid approach to stemming gun violence’.
To say that debating is thriving at Dulwich is something of an understatement: DC boys continue to triumph at national and international level and this year brought the College’s first captain of the English national team. Christoph Marshall (Year 12), part of Dulwich’s continuing success in debating, reports on the Society’s activities this year, from defending the right to bear arms in Texas to arguing for more immigration in Oxford, and reveals some of the secrets that keep the teams at the top of their game
Christoph, Kenza and Seb Curtis in Texas
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