Our director’s take on the student-organized Debates event
Nov. 6, 2020
On Oct. 21, 2020, thanks to members of the school’s debate team, BEST, an exciting event took place. Everybody willing to participate in the discussions went outside during the 5th class to take part in the show, while others just watched and enjoyed the topics.
One of the most significant guests at the event was the school’s headmistress, Mrs. Neycheva, and in this article we will be reviewing her take on the unusual school debate.
The headmistress was proud of the students’ enthusiasm and she really enjoyed the debates. It was the first event organized by students, including Varsity debaters Malena Malcheva, Jasen Jekov and Denis Drachev, and the headmistress hopes that we will get to see similar affairs in the future, with even more people getting involved. A lot of students from all grades were interested in the debate. All of the audience participated, and some of them even watched the event from their classrooms.
Each part of the debate was very educational, and all of the questions were intriguing. Students were free to express their own opinions and share their thoughts on topics concerning modern problems, such as Bulgarian hospitals, healthcare, and Bulgarian infrastructure. The students’ demonstration of their language-speaking skills was fluent, and they also managed to display a very rich vocabulary.
Neycheva believes that every student should try debating because that’s the proper way to teach communication skills and good manners. The regulations for this event showed that the debating skills of our students will soon be recognized, and their hard work will pay off. Thanks to their willingness to express their opinions, the AEG Geo Milev’s reputation will rise, she believes.
The next Eastern Regional tournament of the national BEST Foundation will be held at our school for the second year in a row, on the 21st/22nd of November. That’s in recognition of the debate team’s hard work and high achievements. Most certainly such an event — in addition to debate, there are competitions in poetry, prose, duo and oratory — will attract an audience, and that too will be a good advertisement for the school.
[Editor’s note: Due to COVID-19, the tournament will now take place online, but BEST Foundation officials will still visit Geo Milev for the weekend, and our students — one varsity debate team and three novice debate teams — will be able to participate on site.]
In the past, when Neycheva was a student in this school, a lot of musicals were organized by students, as well as plays, and they were all met with huge appreciation and recognition. Sadly, as years passed, they became rare, she added.
She sees this recent student-run public discussion as the start of an awakening process to get more and more people engaged in school life. That’s the right way to continue, Neycheva said, because students should propose and organize all the extra activities in school.
Motivation is something that comes from the inside, and any efforts by administrators to try to motivate the students would be seen as forced. If teachers tried organizing a similar event, making students participate, the results would have never been as good. Without being too obsessed by the activities of the school, each student can devote some of his/or her free time to donate energy and ideas, as well as creativity to our school. That will get people engaged in the right way of image-making, she said.
Mrs. Neycheva felt very happy that day because the public discussion and forum was the first student-organized event in the last few years. It’s not the teachers, nor the principals, it’s not the deputies, it’s the students that represent the school, she said. This representation is on display in the shops, on public transportation, and on the streets — the youths’ behavior determines the school’s reputation and how society sees it.