On Saturday 17 April, AMADEUS Vienna competed against five other schools in the first of the 2021 Austrian Debate League Series.

The Austrian Debating League is made up of all the international schools in Vienna, with each school entering two or three teams. AMADEUS Vienna participated with five students from Grades 9-11: Kento, Alex, Darya, Sofia, and Maria.

The event consisted of three separate debates on two topics:

1. “Dictatorships are an economically and socially stabilizing governmental structure.”
2. “The benefits of social media outweigh the harms”.

For the former, the teams had to deliver both Affirmative and Negative statements and had time prior to the event to prepare statements and arguments. The latter was an ‘impromptu’ debate and the topic was released only 15 minutes prior to the start, giving the students little time to prepare.

Mr Fitzgerald, Experiential Learning Coordinator at AMADEUS, explains that the students delivered an outstanding performance and represented our school to the highest standard: “The AMADEUS students dressed smart, came prepared, handled themselves with the utmost professionalism, and delivered their statements with confidence”.

He continues as he explains why a debate event like this is important:

“The Austrian Debate League presents students with the opportunity to engage in intellectual debates with like-minded people and embody the development of ‘global citizenship’. The discussions in the debating league help prepare students for the bigger challenges laying ahead of them, such as equality, humanitarian aid, and climate change.”

We look forward to more debates in the coming months – stay tuned!