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Debate Program

Karl Popper Debate Program

General Description of the Debate Program:
goals and objectives

Nowadays the young generation of Ukraine has a lot of problems, and among the acutest one is that it is not taught critical thinking skills, and the current school system is orientated only on a blind and thoughtfulness memorizing of material. On the contrary to it, debate and the Debate Program are teaching the youth to see a wide range of opinions and be able to find their strong and weak sides and logically, not emotionally, defend them. Debate is not only the competition for a best manner to speak and to present your thoughts but also a hard intellectual work. By researching each of the resolutions, high school and university students get familiar with the whole stream of materials from scientific articles to essays in local newspapers. The ability to emphasize on the most important and to select the most essential along with support presented by examples give a solid basis for further scientific and research activities. Many teachers take the Debate Program as a tool in teaching their classes because it gives a wonderful chance to improve speaking abilities, a general intellectual potential and a manner of cultural, high-leveled speaking style. It is not a secret that in the US future political and cultural leaders of the nation deal with debate and speaking activities, but the Debate Program in Ukraine doesn't create certain barriers for the willing to join the program, the crucial thing is the desire to get involved.

The goal of the program is to bring up a generation of clever, intellectually rich and socially aware citizens, people who will be able to live in a new democratic country, for whom human values and respect for an individual will become the core features of a personality. The Debate Program is being realized through the Debate NGO Network in different regions of Ukraine since 1994.

Program participants: secondary and higher educational establishments, youth NGO take part in the realization of the program.

Successful stories:

  • The Debate Program has created regional debate centers as NGOs (Ukraine is the first country where the debate NGOs are separate organizations). During the international meetings Ukrainian delegations always give consultations and share ideas about program achievements and an NGO role in this.
  • Ukraine has been elected to the Debate Program Board and serves as a consultant on the development of the program.

    • The New York staff first supported the ideas of Ukraine about:

  • establishing the Debate Association with the center in Budapest, Ukraine will become a member of this organization as a united national organization;
  • organizing trainings for the debate staff on management, fundraising, positive thinking, gender equality, human rights issues, minority problems;
  • opening university debate clubs in 8 cities of Ukraine, conducting the first university debate tournament with the human rights motions;
  • establishing 12 new clubs in small towns and villages of Ukraine;
  • establishing a minority Debate Program called "Debate in the native tongue";
  • establishing the program "Debate for young kids".

    • Educational tournaments on the civil rights issues

    Every regional has educational tournaments on the human rights issues whose goal lie in teaching kids debate rules and get ting them familiar with the main principles of human rights. Participants listen to the debate sessions and lectures on the resolutions which are presented by lawyers and specialists on human rights issues. The resolutions which have already been debated are "Human rights are culturally determined", "Ukraine is a democratic state", "Capital punishment is justified", "A state should provide education in its official language", "All permanent citizens should be offered citizenship", "Restricting civil liberties for the sake of cultural unity is justified", "Open Society requires open borders". A television debate was made under the materials of the debate round where the resolution "Private life of politicians should be open to public" was debated.

    School and University Student tournaments
    on civil rights issues

    The first generation of debaters have already become university students and brought their enormous interest to debate to the universities where they study. They try to actively use the debate techniques during the studying process and are interested in conducting university tournaments and organizing university clubs at their educational establishments. The human rights and minority group resolutions caused an enormous splash of interest among university students. Among the resolutions that have gained the highest popularity are "Government censorship is justified", "Human rights are universal values", "All people should have a right to live", "Euthanasia is justified".

    Club support

    The Debate Program in Ukraine provides the methodic support of the debate clubs by literature not only on current political issues but also on the human rights studies and analysis of the contemporary situation in the field of the human rights protection. By the active request of the Ukrainian Debate Center the Open Society Institute has created the special page on the current discussion on euthanasia.

    Magazine

    Besides the informational bullet the Debate Center is publishing a regular magazine where debaters and coaches write articles about tournaments, seminars and any club events in their regions. And this is not all, debaters and coaches give funny stories, organize hot discussions about the main debate issues and resolutions which they debate.

    Debate centers and its functions

    The Informational Methodic Debate Centers (Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kalush, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Simferopol) was established with a purpose to help with distribution of information among different debate clubs. They are Centers also gives help in conducting seminars and tournaments on the local as well as on the regional level. They are debate Centers Directors and the national coordinator of the program are entirely responsible for the program realization. The functions of the debate Center are:

    1. To serve as a meeting place for those clubs which don't have a permanent room at their schools;
    2. To publish and distribute a monthly informational bullet which will inform all the program participants about current events in the program, seminars, tournaments and resolutions debated there;
    3. To provide with an Internet access, debate listserve, recent newspapers and magazines;
    4. To conduct trainings and seminars for program participants and independent judges;
    5. To establish relations with different organizations and foundations both in Ukraine and abroad;
    6. To provide with any possible methodic help all the interested organizations.

    Expected results:

    Children will get familiar with the main issues in the human rights sphere and by debating human rights resolutions will become more aware of the political and cultural situation. Besides this, it will have a great educational results and impact because children will absorb the principles of the Universal declarations and local documents on protection basic human rights and will understand their importance which is very vital for their future life.

    The Debate Program is being realized in Ukraine by the Information Methodic Debate Center thanks to financial support of the International Renaissance Foundation and the Open Society Institute (New York)

    Go to the common information about the Information Methodic Debate Center

    The page was created by the YIEC "Nadija"