Water in debate Rhetoric groupe at Uddevalla gymnasieskola in Sweden 30`th of November 2012

The pupils There are 18 pupils in my rhetoric class under this year 2012/2013

Thesis All fresh water on Earth shall be the property of the United Nation from 2020 onwards, and be distributed equally between countries

Rules The class was divided into four groups and all groups collected information about the subject, without knowing if they were supposed to agree with the thesis or not. Three days before the teacher announced which group who are for or against the thesis. There were two debates after each other.

Rules In each debate each group had 12 minutes to argue for their standpoint with the other teams, one at a time. After that there were time for questions and the real five minute debate started. After the debate there was a voting among the listeners which side who ”won” the debate.

Introduction specially for Comenius One of the girl made an introduction specially for Comenius. She was saying: ”Welcome to this debate where we will discuss if the UN should own all the sweet water in the world and divide it fairly to all countries. Water is something that we take for granted in Sweden, but in many countries it´s a shortage. Who should have the right to own the water?”

Result The debate came to deal more with technical questions rather than ethics and morals. Environmental questions and ecological systems were more common in the discussion.

Result The pupils have not yet delt with religions, ethical and philosophical questions in their education. Questions about a just and equal distribution of water become the crucial point.

The end The pupils have increased their knowledge about a big problem for Europe, that could be a part of their and other people´s future, that make them to act. Water is a treasure to take care of in Sweden, in Europe and in the whole world.