Junior WSD年度冠军赛已备辩题解析

距离国赛还有最后20几天

大家的备赛进度如何鸭~

首次国赛Junior WSD的已备辩题

涉及教育、哲学、金融、价值四大领域

多元的选题也给选手们带来新的挑战

不知道大家对这四个辩题

是否都有相应的拆解思路了呢~

Junior WSD年度冠军赛已备辩题

▋ MOTION 1 THS harsh punishments for bullying in school.

▋ MOTION 2 THO the narrative that life should be lived in the moment.

▋ MOTION 3 THR the global increase in interest rates following the end of the COVID pandemic.

▋ MOTION 4 THBT it is immoral to lie to avoid hurting someone's feelings.

不同类型的辩题侧重点有什么不同？

在教练眼中，又会怎样拆解这些辩题?

今天我们邀请到

暑期Junior WSD营地主教练Coach Robert

为大家带来已备辩题解析

希望能够为大家厘清备赛思路有所帮助~

Robert Raos

2023 NHSDLC Junior WSD营地主教练

超6年World School/BP辩论及教学经验

Radboud大学辩论队主席

曾获多项国际辩论赛事冠军，包括欧洲Queer公开赛2020，芝加哥公开赛2022等。

Building a case for a debate tournament might be challenging. This is why this article will help you tackle some of the motions you will encounter at the next NHSDLC competition and provide argument ideas for both proposition and opposition.

For side proposition, the first argument to explore is how harsh punishments would disincentivize students from bullying their peers. Bullying is extremely detrimental to the psychological development of children as it can lead to social isolation and a lowered sense of self-worth. Minimizing bullying should therefore be a high priority in this debate. Students want to avoid severe consequences like suspension, bad grades, or expulsion. This means they are going to think twice before engaging in bullying behavior once this motion is proposed. Additionally, making an example out of problematic students teach other students that bad actions have consequences.

On side opposition, however, it would be good to analyze the alternatives to harsh punishments. In debating, we call this the counterfactual. It may be a better idea to talk to problematic students and identify the problems in their lives that turned them into bullies. In many cases, these students come from abusive homes or difficult social backgrounds. Counseling them may unearth a long-term solution to their problematic behavior. What’s more, once a student gets punished, he and his friend group will be even less likely to accept the bullied student into their friend group and might even increase the intensity of bullying as revenge for the punishment.

Let’s face it: having a stable career is important. Money is the prerequisite for other things in life. Money is necessary to secure housing, pay bills, afford food and other groceries, and pay for transportation and education. As a result, the narrative that pushes young people to forget about their responsibilities and just have fun should be strongly opposed. Children do not have fully developed brains and cannot grasp the consequences of their actions, which is why the narrative to fixate on the present is so persuasive to them. Due to this framing, the strongest claim from proposition on this motion is that kids need to be reminded to study and work hard so that they have more freedom to enjoy life later once they achieve financial stability.  

On the other hand, opposition can frame this debate in a different way. Framing is a useful tool. It is about establishing where, when, and how the debate takes place. It is strategic to point out that not only is life impermanent, but different stages of life are impermanent as well. You will only be a teenager once, you will only be a young adult once – when you grow older, there is no going back. If you miss out on the joys of adventuring and discovering new things when you are young, you will grow resentful of the fact that you wasted your youth. No amount of money can fix the gaping void inside your soul that whispers to you that you are not truly fulfilled. Besides, being more relaxed and having more fun can actually help you focus on studying and working.
 

When central banks raise interest rates, it is more expensive for people to take out loans. In other words, if you take out a loan, you have to pay more money back to the bank. This might seem like a bad thing but it is necessary in terms of inflation. When the prices of goods and services increase rapidly, the problem of inflation arises. Due to the supply shocks of the covid pandemic, as well as the increased amount of demand in the economy following the re-opening of the market, suppliers have started increasing their prices.  

Opposition can argue that lowering interest rates would reduce the overall amount of money in the economy, which would lead to less spending, which reduces demand for goods and services, which forces suppliers to lower prices, therefore reducing the rates of inflation. Additionally, keeping the interest rates high means that in times of future economic crisis, you can decrease it back down to stimulate economic growth even more.

Side proposition in this debate has the opposite burden. They have to prove that economic recovery right now is more important than curbing inflation. In fact, inflation is not always a bad thing. Some economies like China may benefit from their currency being less valuable relative to other currencies since it makes their exports cheaper and hence more attractive to international markets, which ultimately boosts domestic business. In addition, making loans more widely available means that poor people can gain the money to service their daily expenses in times of crisis and support local businesses, which supercharges the economy as a whole.  

This motion asks students to think about morality. All too often, people rely on intuitions, cultural norms, and social conventions to make moral judgments without thinking about them too deeply. This debate should make you construct reasons as to why a certain action is good or bad. This is why, unlike for the previous motions, I will not give you direct argument ideas for this motion (I want you to think of them yourselves).

Instead, I will suggest a few theories of morality you can research to help you win this debate. One of the most popular theories of morality is utilitarianism, according to which the action that leads to the most net happiness in the world (and the least net sadness) is the morally correct action. Another framework, deontology, suggests that morality is based on a set of rules, duties, or norms that cannot be violated, even when it is convenient. It would be equally as useful to consider the idea of virtue ethics, which claims that morality should not be centered around consequences or actions, but rather about the character traits you develop and cultivate.

I hope these ideas are helpful to you in preparing for the tournament. Best of luck!

Copywriter | Robert Raos

Editor | Sonetto