Spence School - Yearbook (New York, NY)

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DEBATING SOCIETY President Joan Comfort Vice-President Margaret Shand MEMBERS Nadine Bertin, Francine du Plessix, Evyne House, Leone Lee, Nina Martianoff, Patricia Schulte, Sandra Stralem. Should High Schools be Co-Educational ? This was the question for our debate. We had been Icoking forward to this event, planning for it, and know that the best side won. Every Tuesday we meet on the fifth floor with Mrs. Ryan, our faculty advisor. Each girl has gathered during the week the material for her speech. Each member reads her speech; her team members criticize and improve it. The team captains and the president collect extra material and give it to the girls who need it. Each team meets in a separate room; the points are unknown to the other team until the day of the debate. Mrs. Ryan has helped us a great deal by teaching us the rules of debating. We have asked Miss Cutter for reading on this subject; in future years we hope to have a shelf of books on debating. The Club also decided to have notes on our speeches this year, which we felt would make the speeches more informal. We decided to have a chairman to present the ques- tion before the debate, to introduce each speaker, and tell which side she represented. Our hope is that our first debate will be so successful that we shall be able to hold a second debate. In any case we look forward next fall to a debate on the presidential elec- tion issues. The members of the Debating Club will be preparing for this during the summer, for we expect to have it early in October. Our ambition is to develop our Club to the point where we are trained enough to challenge another school—eventually a boys’ school! 49

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