PHOTO: Nuclear disarmament debate participants at Faculty of Law

It was in the Fall 1996 when the Open Society Institute helped to launch competitive academic debating in the nation of Slovenia. According to the stories the organizers are telling now, people had no idead what a debate was and why they would want to participate in one.

Things are very different in the Fall of 2006. The radio is full of debate news, there is a weekly television program, most schools have debate clubs, there is an international conference on debate, there is an international training week for students form many countries, the tournaments are large, and debate is popping out all over the place. Especially this week, as it is the week of the Debate Marathon planned to celebrate the tenth year.

Za in Proti (ZIP), as the organizing body for debate in Slovenia, has a lot to be proud of. Their web page is at http://www.ljudmila.org/debata/ .

Thirty-seven debate events will take place from one end of this small nation to the other.  In major towns, smaller towns and small villages people are showing their appreciation for debating by debating, and inviting the public and getting more people involved.

PHOTO: Law Faculty building in Ljubljana

Events which are part of this include:

    -Six debates in one day staged by the university students at different faculties in Ljubjana. Law, Social Sciences, Economics, Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics and other clubs joined together to stage an epic series of debates. I watched one, judged it, videotaped it, and will be putting it on the videoblog.

    -In the small town of Sredice ob Dravi the students at the elementary school have excited the whole town about their debates about homework. Teachers are debating students on the issue, with students often in favor of homework and teachers against it. Already the debates have led to a new consensus among teachers and students - that homework should be assigned when it is needed and that teachers need to make it more interesting. This is an exciting example of how debate changes minds.

    -The weekly television program TEKMA (“The Match”) held an exciting debate about lowering the voting age to 16, where students engaged in a debate and were joined by representatives of political parties. By the way, the opposition won.

    -In Koper there will be a three-day academic conference http://debate.uvm.edu/betterworld.htm where 83 papers will be presented by scholars from 18 nations on argumentation, rhetoric, debate and the pedagogy of empowerment. An agreement has already been reached that selected papers will be published in books, one in English and the other in Slovenian.

    -63 university students from 16 countries will be gathering on Friday for a one week debate instructional session in Ormuz, the 4th International Debate Academy Slovenia. Students and faculty from European countries as well as Singapore and the USA will be working together on British Parliamentary format debating, and a tournament will conclude the event with the finals in the Ormuz Castle.

    -Many of the local debates are about issues connected with the European Parliament, as ZIP received a grant from them to sponsor debates and the students have found it to be a worthy topic to talk about. Many of these have been round table discussions with the public being very involved.

My congratulations to ZIP on ten years of debate in Slovenia and a successful debate marathon.