Circumsised arguments

Yesterday Miss and 4 delightful year 9s (3 self identified geeks and one in denial) headed off for a day of debating in the London Transport Museum.

My favourite moment: the very plummy accented girl in opposition ended a 3 minute rhetoric-heavy-argument-lite speech with "Ladies and Gentlemen, I ask you, is this any way to run a country?" My kid stands up to begin his speech. "I's gonna tell you my points, about the environment and then about poor people, but before I's gonna do some rebuttling innit, of what she said, and she said is it a way to run a country, and I say yes - it's a great way to run a country, it's gonna be better for the environment cos there aint as much CO2 in busses is it, and it's gonna be better for poor people cos they can actually go to work, and ok maybe the people who earn like over £100,000 might be a bit annoyed at our new tax plan, but we don't care, they take from society, they can give back innit. We don't understand what she's talking bout Mr Chair."

Booyah, take that capitalist pig child!

Runner up for favourite moment: Frankie was going over my scrawled speech structure sheet. "So Miss, I say what I'll say, then I rebuttal, then I say my points, then I circumsise my arguments" Me and the brightest of the kids fall about laughing. Frankie was mortified to learn what the word actually means. "Nah nah Miss man, Obviously I meant summarise innit! Arguments aint got a foreskin!"