Young speakers, high level: At the eighth speech forum for youth, which took place in the Saxonian Parliament, exciting debates were held by students from class 8 to 12 from Saxony and Thuringia. The debating contest, which happened on Saturday, 6th November, was also judged by  Dresden Debating Union‘s president Katharina Wagner. The young speakers could demonstrate their speaking abilities in several panel discussions and monologues.

The first part of the speech forum consisted of six panel discussions. In each discussion six participants converged and the best three could reach the next round. The Dresden Debating Union reports on its website that motions suitable for juveniles like “How to handle cell phones at school?” were partly discussed in a lively and controversial way. In the second part of the speech forum the participants performed monologues with a length of three minutes about current political and social topics. The students were confronting questions like “20 years of unification – a success story?”, “Are our cities too boring?” and “Why are there so few women in leading positions?” similar to the fraction free speakers in the Open Parliamentary Debate (OPD).

The young speakers were supported energetically by their classmates. Also DDU members were part of the audience. They especially enjoyed the speeches’ high level. At the end, a 12th class student from Meißen won. He raised his voice against babys from a gene catalogue in a very convincing way.

vro / glx