Last week, Freemen's hosted its inaugural Join the conversation: Inclusivity Talks.
The talks, organised by Language Teacher, Julia Rosin, are aimed to facilitate an open dialogue on diversity and promote equality in our community and were held in Freemen's state-of-the-art X20 classroom and welcomed participants from around the globe, emphasising our commitment to global dialogue and understanding.
Two sixth formers, Jonah M and Danielle D-B kicked off the first event, who ignited thoughtful discussion on the topic, “How the rise in populism in politics has led to an increase in racism across Europe and the UK.”
Both students demonstrated well researched and insightful points with an excellent level of eloquence and maturity, especially on such a pertinent and sensitive topic in today’s world.
Points covered during the event included media narrative and how it affects minority groups, they questioned "fake news" and how to educate young people to find credible sources.
The students noted that EPQ helps with this as you have to find multiple sources for research, which encourages students to look at different sources, read different articles in different newspapers and press sources.
They also posed the question why is populism linked to right wing and if left wing populism ever a concept? Which led to a discussion where students gave examples of left wing populism i.e., communism.
Jonah commented: "I felt like the event was a huge success and I was honoured to be a keynote speaker. It was very encouraging to see so many younger people from various backgrounds participate in the fruitful discussion. I personally believe that constructive debates are vital to preserving a healthy democracy and I was impressed by many of the points being raised.
"The discussion really showed the potential of intercultural collaboration and how we can build a better and open-minded future by talking to each other. To do this at a time of rising hatred, dissatisfaction and anger at our political systems is of the highest importance. Therefore the evening was a great kick-off to similar future events on inclusivity."
Danielle D-B added: "I really enjoyed the session and having the space to voice my opinion on something I was really passionate about alongside Jonah. I think Jonah and I really worked well together and nicely played off of each others points as well. My research was mainly knowledge based as well as using scholarly evidence from the internet to get my points across as well, which I think the EPQ has definitely helped me with doing. I absolutely loved it and the opportunity to do so."
