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much in the minority in making a powerful case for exiting the EU. I am proud to report that the many students who disagreed with him equally passionately were also happy to share with him their admiration for the skill with which he made his case. We want our students to understand educational establishments as places where freedom of expression is a privileged principle, and that this means that they will encounter ideas that they do not like.” Commitment to free speech was tested in 2016 when Langton Grammar in Canterbury invited old boy, Trump supporter and farright agent provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos to speak. After a whirlwind of media attention, and contact from the Department for Education's counter-extremism unit, the school cancelled the talk. Yiannopoulos was deemed to present too big a safety risk for pupils.
“Debating and oratory are skills which build pupils’ confidence to hold their own on stage”
to Moscow last year for a two hour meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. The chaps, who arranged the trip and meeting entirely on their own, beat prime minister Theresa May and foreign secretary (and Old Etonian) Boris Johnson, neither of whom had yet met the Russian leader. Sadly, the manufacture of such confident young debaters does not, in itself, assure better government or decision-making – as could be seen plainly in politicians' shellshocked faces on the morning after the Yiannopoulos had received a similar Brexit referendum. As Dulwich's Dr Spence invitation from the boys in Dulwich reflects,“In 2016 we came to realise that one College's economics society – with a similar of the weaknesses of contemporary political outcome. “The liberal dilemma is the discourse has been its domination by public acknowledgment that one sometimes has school or Oxbridge-educated men who have to determine exactly what sort and degree approached Westminster politics as if it of free speech is allowed and to decide was simply a grand English speaking when the expression of ideas is so union debating competition. Their gross that it represents an abuse strength and weakness is that of freedom of speech,” says A B OV E they could argue for anything, Dr Joseph Spence, Master A Canford School pupil and often did.” of Dulwich College. “When debating at the Model UN I saw on Youtube the RIGHT rabidly misogynistic line he Bedales Head Keith Budge took on anything relating BELOW to feminism or gender Debater extraordinaire Kenza Wilks equality, I had no hesitation in dis-inviting him, albeit this was only a couple of weeks after the Bataclan massacre in Paris, after which I had declared that diversity and the presence in any community of a variety of opinions was the best weapon any institution or society had against fanaticism.” Public speaking opportunities vary widely at independent schools, from inhouse debates and speaking before small groups of supportive peers, to national events like the Oxford Union debating competition – one of the most prestigious schools debating competitions in the world with over 800 teams competing. Young Enterprise, Model United Nations and European Youth Parliament also provide Still, school debate stands as both a gold speaking opportunities at many schools. standard and a golden age – a throwback to “Public speaking by pupils is engrained a simpler, pre-digital era. “It's a reminder in the fabric of almost all activities at St of a time when politics was decided by Paul’s”, says Richard Girvan, Surmaster of argument rather than personality,” says St Paul’s School. “Debating and oratory are Sarah Lewis, whose three children debated skills which build pupils’ confidence to be in school. “I enjoyed it for the pure joy of able to hold their own on stage and develop beautifully articulated arguments. If a pupil the mental agility to hold and enjoy (and had hurled insults and bald-faced lies like more often than not, win) an argument. It Donald Trump does, he'd have been booed is the combination of this confidence and out of the house!” the exposure to the theory and probably a sense of the potential to have an impact on society that lead to sustained interest in JA N E T T E WA L LI S politics.” And it is this sort of confidence, perhaps, Editor of The Good Schools Guide that encouraged 11 Eton schoolboys to fly goodschoolsguide.co.uk 2017
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