Panel Discussion 4

This is a post from one Apollon citizen made in November of 2019.  The topic of discussion was whether school badges should be abolished or not.  This report should be viewed as a model report.

Panel Discussion 4

Topic: School badge should be abolished.

Discussion members

• Ray Norman/ English teacher in a high school

• Edward Poul/ Tennis player

• Shaun/ Policeman

• Hibito/ Firefighter 

• Parker/ Baker *Moderator

• Skye Coleman/ Musician

Contents
<Poul>
   He disagrees with the idea because the badge is important in order to show  students’ statuses. For example, we can know the students’ school quickly when they are caught in crime.

<Shaun>
  He also disagrees with the idea because the badge can prove which school the students belong to at the first glance. In addition, he is against with Ray’s opinion that the badges make the students feel like slaves because it depends on the way of thinking. Some people may think so, but the other doesn’t think so, either. He raises a good point of the badge. For instance, some students can be soon identified when they do bad things by the school badge.

<Hibito>
  He is against with the idea because the badge has an important role to identify the students statuses.
What’s more, we can notice the students when they are caught in dangerous crime and we can help them quickly.

<Ray>
  He agrees with the idea. In the first place, crime will happen in the place where there are few people. So the badge doesn’t work well at the situation. Moreover, he concerns that students may feel like slaves if they put the badges on their clothes. He asks Ray why high and junior high students should put on the badges although the college students don’t wear them. As for him, the school badge isn’t needed for students.

<Skye>
  He agrees with the idea because the badge shows students identifications and they will be likely to be involved in crime. In his opinion, it will be easy for criminals to distinguish between students and those who aren’t students.


Questions From the Audience

1. What’s the purpose to wear school badges? (Alan)
     Shaun answers this question. He doesn’t know why students should put them on their clothes but it’s necessary to show the students identifications. Only school name is put on the badge.

2. Actually, the badge isn’t related to crime. What do you think? (Sia)
     Skye answers this question. He thinks the badge shows the students statuses so it may cause the crime easier. Students wear them on the way to home and school and in school.

3. How about returning badges before going back home if you worry about crime? (Serena)
    Shaun answers this question. He thinks students don’t need to return them because they help find students easily if they commit the bad things.

4. In the first place, what does the badge mean? Only for crime? The badge is created for integrate school spirit and moreover Apollon is a peaceful place so we don’t have to worry about crime so much. (Robert)
     Skye answers this question. The badge represents school sprit but we don’t have to put them in order to show the sprit.

Result 
    They can’t reach the consensus.

My opinion
    I have two comments about their discussion. First, they should have read the manifesto before the meeting. If so, they didn’t choice the wrong topic. This accident may happen for our next discussion so I will be careful about it. Second, they focused only the crime side too much, so they also have to consider other sides such as the original meaning of the badge.

this is a test

Apollon Town Meeting October 30, 2014

General Introduction
In this town meeting, our panel moderated by Anna Jones who is a ground crew person for an airline discussed whether elementary school students of Apollon should or could have cell phones.
As a background to this discussion, we know that already 50% of elementary school students have and use cellphones according to their parent's wish.  Most people who give cellphones to their kids seem to think that the phone is a safety tool that should be used for emergency communication only or for tracking through GPS functions.  One of the things that opponents to the use of cellphones are concerned with is the misuse of the phone's functions through game playing or inappropriate Internet use.
The panelists today were:

Amy Green: a 29 year old female doctor who felt that the safety features that a cell phone offered far outweighed the problems that are presented by the versatility of most cell phones.  She also felt that proper education was necessary in order to ensure proper use of phones by students.

Alex Bell: a 28 year old female part time worker with a son, has already given her son a cell phone in order to keep track of him through its GPS function while she and her husband are at work.  She feels more security with that arrangement.

Rie Chein: a 25 year old male blacksmith and weekend martial arts instructor feels that using a cell phone is not good for a child's eyes and that time spent using a cell phone is time that could otherwise be used playing outside.  In short, the use of a cell phone is bad for the child's health.

Kate Hail:  a 45 year old female civil servant feels that the use of a cell phone does not promote community and is a waste of time.

Rachel Williams: a 23 year old female dancer feels that cell phones Internet access puts children at risk of viewing improper web sites or being exploited.

Consensus
Unfortunately, the panel was not able to move toward an agreeable consensus.

Observations and Opinions
The discussion seemed to be moving toward a consensus in the end when panelists were asked by the audience whether they were trying to create a law about the use of cellphones or not.  The panel agreed that it wanted to create a law, but agreement of the details couldn't be reached.  Finally, the end decision they had was to make a rule that families would decide whether their children used cell phones or not.

This is exactly the situation that we have now!

Somehow I think that this discussion was not so effective.  It took a long time to get going and panelists didn't seem to see a road to compromise.