1st+Speaker

This page is for First Speakers to upload their speeches and other miscellaneous stuff related to ONLY First Speakers. (BTW, this also means that other speakers can give their comments too.)

Yardstick = To prove that kindergarten is important, necessary and good.

Hi! This is a draft of how my speech will sound like.

Good afternoon honourable judges, my most worthy opponents, beloved teachers, friends and foes alike.

The motion, ‘This house would make kindergarten education compulsory in Singapore,’ we from the proposition believe is an understatement.

Before I go on any further to prove this point, I would like to give the definition of kindergarten. Kindergarten comes from the German words 'kinder', which means 'children', and 'garten', which means ‘garden’. Thus, when we put them together, they form 'children's garden'.

When we talk about 'children's garden', what is conjured in our minds, is a happy place for children to play, to interact with one another and to learn. Thus, when these aspects are applied in an education system, we have a place where children can still play, interact with one another, and learn but in a systematic and controlled environment.

I will be focusing on two tiers with regards to kindergarten education in Singapore. Namely, the social aspect of education in kindergarten and the academic aspect of it.

Normally, children between the ages of 1 to 6 will misbehave in order to get what they want. Parents in this era who are normally busy at work most of the time would normally give in to their children's tantrums. This is a way for those parents to make up for all the lost time with their children. On the other hand, if these children were placed in a kindergarten, they will be taught how to behave amongst peers and other people. As the teachers do not have any personnal relationship with their charges in the kindergarten, they will have no qualms in enforcing manners and social etiquette into these children. Furthermore, as the children are still at an age where they are very receptive to their surroundings, they will be able to learn from good examples shown by the teachers rather easily.This would be good in preparing the children for primary school as they would already be exposed to a school surrounding and to a certain extent, they would already know what is expected of them. They would also be able to interact with new friends easily. All this would make their integration into normal school life much smoother, compared to those who did not attend kindergarten education.

Now, moving on to my second tier, which is the academic aspect of kindergarten education.

Studies have shown that children learn best and at a faster rate before reaching the age of 6. This is the time when their brains develop in spurts. A child's brain develops so fast at this stage that when an adult speaks directly and personnally to a preschool child, cascades of impulses go through the child's neurons or nerve cells, which are connected to one another, by synapses. The repetition of these kinds of positive early interactions actually helps the brain reinforce the existing connections and make new ones. Therefore it is important that the child be taught as many positive things during this period as he is able to retain the memory much better than if he were to be taught at a later stage. For example, a child who has been exposed to numbers at an early stage in his life will not have any problems coping with them in primary school. Thus he will not shun away from mathematics when facing the subject. Similarly, a child who has been exposed to alphabets and words in kindergarten will be able to handle his languages much better.

With that, I leave you with my fellow propositions who will be able to elaborate further on this motion. Thank you. =Nabilah

(I'm only half-way editing. Jarret, please go online tommorrow at around 7:30pm)=Nabilah

Hi Nabilah. Overall, your speech is quite okay. But it needs some modification. Firstly, you need to include what your substantive is, and what are your tiers, followed by Teng Chao's substantive and tiers. Since you don't know his subs and tiers yet, you can just draw a blank line there, and fill it in either on Friday, or put it in when Teng Chao uploads his speech. Secondly, you must have sign-posting. Sign-posting means, for example: //...Blah Blah Blah Blah. Now moving on the my second tier, about blah blah blah. Blah blah blah...// Get it? You must tell your judges what you are talking about before indulging in it. You shouldn't just jump into your next tier immediately, making the judges think that it is still considered the first substantive. Also, remembering the fact, that your substantive is about //What is taught in kindergarten and why it is important//, you must also talk about the kindergarten teaching the alphabet and the basic numerals etc. Mainly, sign-posting is the biggest issue. I can't exactly see what is what. So you have to improve on that. ~Jarret