For all the teachers in the world and all the parents whose children are in elementary school, here are 15 persuasive debate topics for elementary school students to discuss and improve their mental skills.
People say that children are like a plain piece of paper. There is nothing on it until you write it down and it stays there for a long time. On the other hand, these same people say that, if you don’t practice something often with your child, he is likely to forget it within a year.
In my opinion, children are more complex personalities than that. If we would have to put it in that sense, it would be better to compare them to the real computer systems. First of all, children can stash too many information, 6 times more than the adult and their memory is also better which is why, if there was a competition between an adult and a child in learning some subject and then be questioned by some expert, the child would score a lot better than the adult.
Besides, children have a lot better imagination, which is why they can come up with much better solutions to some problem than the adults and they could connect things more lightly. But why debates?
Well, as you all know, debates are two-way streets. There has to be someone that advocates in favor of something and someone who is against it. The whole point of debates is to hear the both sides out, put all arguments on a scale and see which one is right. The World is not all black and white. There is a gray area as well and, to be honest, everything has its advantages and disadvantages and it is important for kids to know where to draw the line.
It is also important to allow them to peacefully find their ways to speak their minds, but also explain why they think that way. With a little help from yours, of course. They need to find out and understand why some other children don’t share their beliefs and tend to think differently. This can change their perspective but also help them grow.
Of course, you can never bring up some more serious topic that isn’t even suitable for higher grades and the ones that the adults are still struggling and their opinions are split. For example, in college, I had topics such as abortion, adoption, and the LGBTQ. We all came in with some attitude but we were a bit different people when we went out. We got to think twice before we said anything because every answer we gave led to some other question. And the question that got us all a bit hurt was: ’’What if it happens/happened to you/your child?’’
As soon as that question was brought up, our faces were pale and we had to do it all over again because we have realized what we were talking about.
But this would be too much for elementary school students. They are still into dog vs cat zone and they should stay there for now because this should be the most relaxing period of their lives. But, just for entertainment, let’s all give our children these 15 persuasive debate topics for elementary school students to exercise their brains a bit.
