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Thank you for inviting me to this fabulous arena. As a PE teacher, often times we are
not taken seriously. Yeah, I use to teach science. I am really excited to be here. I
just wanted to talk quickly about why I think it is valuable for kids under the age of 19
to have cell phones. Have them at school. But I kinda agree with Mr.Wightman. I have
to say, you know what maybe we should ban cellphones, and if we are going to ban cellphones,
lets ban the pen, lets ban the pencil, lets ban any other modern piece of equipment that
we have created as individuals through innovation. Innovation, isn't that a class that some of
you are taking right now in school? Any other type of innovation we've had. What's the difference
between us and you know, the basic animal, they say is the ability to think freely, innovate,
and use these things we call non opposable thumbs. Which I must add I use to text message.
All right, so that's the first thing. I really think that. Mr.Wightman had brought some interesting
points up about how the iphone or the cellphone or mobile devices actually hinder creativity.
I think they have spawned a new generation, a new type of creativity. Something beyond
what we normally have. Sorry. Progress. Evolution. We need to move forward, and not backwards.
Isn't the next step in moving the forward be banning the monster that has been created?
Who's to define it as a monster? Who's to define it as a monster? Who's to determine
that. Someone could have said something that about books. Ahh, we've got written literature.
What's going to happen? More kids are going to read! What's the problem with having access
to more knowledge, at our fingertips. Point of information? Yes. Is it not acceptable
that that the school has the job of providing literature or reading material other than
a cellphone, which is mainly used for purposes that are not educational? Is knowledge just
literature? Is reading the only way of learning? Mr.Wightman, I'm sure you be the first one
to say that, you do not just read to learn, you do not just need to be spoken to to learn.
Learning is multifaceted and comes in a variety of different ways. Not just one single way.
I also think we need to look at learnable moments. I know how many times when I was
a kid, something amazing would happen. I'll give you an example. It was August, I think
it was Perseids, a lightning shower. Sorry. A meteor shower. At that age, I was like 17,
I had no idea what that was. It wasn't until I got older and I had access to a computer
and my iphone and my cellphone that I was able to find out that that was what was happening.
You guys have at the age of, 14, 15, 16, something really amazing happens, now you have the ability
to say this. Boom. Ohh, that's what it is. Teachable and learnable moments, that you
wouldn't get. Normally, what would you guys have to do? You have to go, come back to class,
wait till class ended, wait till lunch time maybe? Point of information? Are you saying
you can look up something? That's not what we are talking about. You can look up something
on a laptop, just not on a cellphone, which will interrupt, just like I'm doing with you.
Second point of information is to creativity, you mentioned I, you said that I use the word
that it does not encourage creativity. I didn't even use the word creativity. Is that right?
In terms of interrupting, I don't know how phones can really interrupt in a class. I
think at prior to this debate, we said, please put their phones on vibrate, so if you are
concerned about that kind of thing, they have an amazing feature that allows you to not
interrupt. Have you use one of these things before? You played scrabble before? You should
play word with friends. So, I just lost my chain of thought there. Teachable moments
and learnable moments, the opportunities are endless now for youth and young students,
to use these types of tech devices. The final thing I want to say, is just to speak to Mr.Wightman's
point about inequity when it comes to phones. Inequity of people having phones and
not having phones is not a class issue. It's not an issue of how much money one has. That's
a school issue, in terms of providing equity for kids. I think that shouldn't be of concern.
That's more of a school issue then it is a wealth issue for students.
Point of information? Are you actually suggesting that the school provide students with cellphones should they not have cellphones?
I am saying that they should provide an avenue for students to use cellphones.
Is that ipod, ipad. That's an ipad. So it has ipads for 30 students?
Oh, lock together so that students can use every class. Can they be used similar to iphones? Kids, you tell me. Yep! Oh, interesting.
Thank you!
I now call upon the second speaker of the prop, our debate coach Taylor to give her speech.
Sorry, just one second, I'm texting.
Ahh, no seriously, this is really important. Like Miley is tweeting some stuff right now.
I hear she is twerking. These kids these days.
I'm trying to keep up. So, I think what this demonstrates right now, is that there are
certain environments where cellphones are not appropriate, and the cellphone is not good.
And one such environment, is for me, as the presenter, to be up here and completely blatantly ignoring you all, by using my phone, rather than actually presenting.
So ultimately, this acknowledges that there are times when cell phones are bad and that's what we are proposing over here, on side proposition.
So what I'm going to be doing today, is Mr.Wightman has kinda brought forwards why cellphones are bad, and how they are harming it.
And what I'm really going to talk about here, is how, continuing why they are bad, but also showing how banning them really solves that.
Before I do that, I have to clash some of what has been brought forth by the opposition today because lets be real, there are some holes over here.
So what I'm going to do for you today is I'm going to start right at the start of their speech.
So he got up here, and his introductions for you today was whether we should ban the pencil and modern utensils and how innovation is what matters.
But what we think on side proposition, is that yes cells were innovative, but that ultimately the next step in innovation is knowing when we don't need them.
Because that is the next big step for us, is understanding, in a moment Rachel, when cellphones matter,
when they can be used for our advantage, and when that isn't, which is essentially in a classroom. Is that right Rach?
So Peeps, you're suggesting therefor that students in a high school environment have no self control?
Is it not better to teach them the best time to use a cellphone in moderation, rather than just decide a full out ban?
Well I mean, the best time to use them is not in class, first of all.
And for all times that as the teacher or as a presenter, you will get into a class, and a kid is staring at their crotch.
First of all, I'm going to hope that they are looking at their cellphone. Second of all, they shouldn't be looking down there anyways.
So onward. Ahh, no thank you.
So he talked about the use of cellphones as comparable to like books and access to more knowledge.
And I don't think that ultimately someone's knowledge is expanded by their access to social media.
Because for the most part, student's aren't in class doing extra reading on their phones, concerning material.
You are not learning about Alexander the Great and going on your phone, and Googleing his conquests, or his pasts, or like the cultures that he encountered.
What you are actually looking at everybody's facebook statuses, and we don't think that relevant to our standards of reading.
We don't think that's relevant for you are learning about world war two.
Also too, he went and he talked about teachable moments. But what we think is that to teach infers instruction, and instruction requires
an instructor delivering knowledge. So real teaching and real teachable learning moments come in a classroom situation,
and not some something from cellphones. No thanks.
Also they talked about how do phones interrupts. Well, ladies and gentlemen, as you see during my speech, they has been constantly popping up, right, they have been constantly asking questions.
Has this distracted all of you? Has this distracted me? Is that not the same as you taking out your cellphone and looking at the notifications?
On that point, no thank you.
Is that not the same as the buzz on your phone? Whether it's on vibrate, whether you even you just see it light up, and gosh you fidget makes a noise in class, and everyone else can hear.
We think that that's distracting and we think that that undermines our education and the value that you're getting out of a classroom.
And he said here that, equity is a school issue and exactly because equity is a school issue, that is why need to enforce equity by eliminating the inequality that cellphones create.
Because ultimately yes, enforcing equity between students is a school issue and should be addressed at the school level.
Alright so, now that I have discussed pretty much all that they have said. Ohh, one more thing, he took great care to point out the ipad that were there, just seconds ago, I swear.
But we think that, ya there are ipad and those have very similar uses to cellphones, but in a constructive way because A, they are not your personal tool, and they are not connected to the internet.
And if you have ipads available, you shouldn't need your phone. If you have these resources, there is no reasons what so ever why you should need a personal device.
So now I'm going to move on to my constructive material. So how I have broken down for you today, is that I'm essentially talking consumerism and how cellphones fall into consumerism, and how this resolution stops that.
So the main thing is we know that consumerism is bad, but like ultimately why is that bad, and why is that bad for cellphones and how does cellphones fall into this and how we can solve this.
So essentially we say that consumerism at its whole takes away your choices. So, what happens here is that not only does it take away the choice, but it biases those choices.
So that starts with the stream of information that is constantly coming at you. So that ultimately as I've already stated in my clash, undermines your education.
But we think that social media devices also have lots of ads. We think that this biases youth and again encourages the inequality that Mr.Wightman talked about earlier.
On that point? Ah, no thank you. Another thing here is that in consumerism takes away your choices, the thing here is that none of you probably feel like you have to choice whether or not to have a cellphone.
The choice is whether you are going to get a blackberry or an iphone. And we think that this is you falling into consumerism, because you are not making a personal choice on what you want out of your life,
it's what you think that other people want from you and how you think you are going to stay connected to that.
And we don't think that that has any place in the school system. And that we should be encouraging that in the school system. Again, no thank you. See what I mean, distracting.
And eventually too, we think that, back to what Mr.Wightman was discussing, people being evaluated as their cellphones and what they plan to do with their cellphones. Times up.
No, I get 15 seconds. I just need to conclude, I promise. Is that education is meant to be an equal learning platform, and the best way to do that is to take consumerism and therefor cellphones out of the equation. Thank you!
I now call upon the second speaker of the opposition to begin her constructive speech.
And I just want to remind you guys that we do have cake at the end, if you guys stay till the end of the debate. You have 6 minutes.
All right guys. I going to first of say that I am so excited to be debating right now. I haven't debated in so long.
And I'm really like, my blood is pumping. And I'm so really ready to go
So lets dive right into it. What I'm going to do for you as the final speaker for the constructive side, side opposition today, is I would like to