Port Macquarie students contemplated the big questions in life taking part in the Northern NSW Philosothon in Coffs Harbour on November 22-23.
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Students from St Joseph’s Regional and MacKillop College competed with nearly 100 other students in a Community of Inquiry discussing topics to gain a wider understanding of a range of different issues.
As part of the competition students were required to use inquiry, speaking and listening skills to investigate a range of topics such as ‘is it okay to lie’, ‘does everyone have a right to be saved’ and ‘is our pursuit of happiness making us sad’.
They challenged their own philosophical understanding to extend themselves and others over the two day event with the students from MacKillop College taking home the overall team award as well as a number of individual awards.
Kyden Power-O’Toole said it was a great learning experience being able to think about questions and topics outside the usual school subjects.
“It was our first year at anything like this but it was great because we actually won the best overall team from the team who has won it the last six years,” Kyden said.
“I really enjoyed the experience because you didn’t have to answer yes or no but rather it was about having a discussion and being open to changing your mind.”
For taking out the competition the team has been invited to the Australasian championships in 2019, in Canberra, said student Nicola Di Bona.
“I found it really interesting that in every topic we spoke about there were so many different view points to take into consideration,” Nicola said.
As well as the overall award, Saoirse Barltrop and Theo Last won a Spirit of Philsosthon award and Ella Sorenson won Most Promising Philosopher.
Two students from St Joseph’s Regional were also awarded special awards for their hard work and determination to embrace the collective nature of the event.
Julian Hiam took home the coveted Philosophers’ Philosopher award for the best overall performance as voted by his peers and Rebecca Hazell also won a Spirit of Philosothon for outstanding thinking and discussion.
“It was all about using logic, listening to people and then elaborating on what they said to either back up what you were saying or to change your mind,” Julian said.
“Overall it was a great experience and I think we all learned a lot which is good.”
“It is a shame that we can’t or don’t have similar things like this at school everyday because it was great to be able to have a deep and meaningful discussion with people who were there for the same reason as us,” Rebecca said.
“It was such a great friendly environment and people were genuinely open to changing their minds which was really great.”
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