Monday, April 9, marked the beginning of a 2-day Spring Break milestone in the Debate in the Neighborhood (DitN) program. For the first time, students from the Hindu Temple Society of New York (located in Flushing), the Jamaica Muslim Center, and the Sikh Cultural Society and Gurdwara (located in Ozone Park) came together in one place, to get to know each other and be assigned to 3-member debate teams.
Our venue was the offices of IDEA (International Debate Education Association), located on East 22nd Street in Manhattan. Led by the IDEA trainer, Aditi Naik, the students first engaged in some “ice breaker” activities that helped them get to know each other. Aditi had all 30 students sit in a circle and recite the names of the other students, a seeming impossible challenge that the students handled with enthusiasm.
Next, the students mixed together in an interview activity that had them hunting for students who had seen a particular movie, or liked a specific type of food.
Later in the day students were given tests of their knowledge of world political leaders, and geography:
Finally, the students began some “debate-type” activities, such as the “Balloon Game,” where students imagined themselves to each be a famous person, such as Isaac Newton, George Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Lady Gaga. The famous people were stranded in a hot air balloon that was over weighted and destined to crash unless some of the occupants were ejected. Each of the students, posing as their famous persona, had to declare why they should be saved. In this spirited clip, Martin Luther King, Jr. debates with Isaac Newton (click on image to play video):
Tuesday will see the students assigned to 3-member teams, and they begin to formally debate. Stay tuned for further reports.
A collaboration of ICNY and the International Debate Education Association (IDEA), and funded by Open Society Youth Initiative, Debate in the Neighborhood aims to engage immigrant and first-generation students in the enriching educational tradition of debate, and to foster understanding, cooperation, and a free and lively exchange of ideas among young New Yorkers from diverse cultures, ethnicities and religious traditions.
