What it is
Many of us know what a school debating society is. There are debating societies in many schools. Here students gather and discuss a particular subject. One bloc speaks in favor of the subject, the other against it. Thus if the subject for discussion is, say, ‘Early marriage’, one side will try to prove that it is good, the other side will try to prove that it is bad. The president will finally speak out his views and close the debate.
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Usefulness
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A debating society is of great use to us. It sharpens our power of thinking and reasoning. If we want to discuss a subject, we shall have to know something about it. We must think about it to gain our point. We must learn to argue. We must learn how to prove that we are right and the opposite party is wrong. If we join a debating society, we learn the art of speaking before the public. Many famous orators of the world learnt the art of speaking in the debating society of the school. So we may turn out to be orators in future if we learn how to speak freely in a debating society. It also increases our knowledge. If we want to win our point, we must read new books. We can also learn much from the arguments of the opposite side. We get many new ideas. Many of our wrong ideas are also corrected.
Bad effects
Sometimes it is seen that we cannot discuss a subject in a friendly spirit. We think that our only aim is to defeat our opposite party. If we cannot win by reasoning, we lose temper and say something unreasonable. This gives rise to bitter feelings. And it so happens that while we begin as friends, we part as enemies. This is very bad and undesirable.
Conclusion
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We must remember that if we lose nothing by it. We have no reason to be ashamed of our defeat. Sometimes we may win and sometimes we may be defeated. As it is a useful institution, every school should have it. Interest must be created, so that the students may be encouraged to take part in the debate.