“It’s up to parents not teachers to teach children right from wrong”, Charlotte Rea declared at this year’s Westhoughton Rotary Youth Speaks competition.
In their winning presentation, the Westhoughton High School Intermediate team tackled the key subject Parents and Teachers: What’s the Difference?
Backed by chairperson Chloe Pritchard and proposer of the vote of thanks, Louis Fitzpatrick, she deplored the fact that teachers were now expected to teach subjects outside their professional academic expertise.
The roles of parents and teachers were becoming blurred as teachers fill in for parents in teaching about the moral aspects of such areas as drugs and knife crime.
Rotary Past President Phil Wood welcomed the teams from both Westhoughton and Ladybridge High Schools saying how delighted the Rotarians and their guests were at the prospect of a keen competition between the schools and their Senior and Intermediate teams.
Ladybridge Intermediate spoke first stating that younger generations were not being sufficiently prepared for their future lives and potential careers.
Westhoughton Seniors asked why our communities were falling apart.
As more time was being spent with virtual friends on social networks, people were losing contact with real people with many not even knowing their neighbours.
Westhoughton Intermediate team then gave an impassioned plea on behalf of hard pressed teachers, worrying that the pressures on them were causing stress when required to teach subjects which could best be learned through parents acting as good role models.
Ladybridge Senior team chairperson Jasmine Ahmad opened a presentation intriguingly entitled We are more than pink or blue by explaining their concern about the constraints imposed by preconceived stereotypes.
The overall winners were Westhoughton High School Intermediate team of Chloe Pritchard, chairperson, Charlotte Rea, speaker and Louis Fitzpatrick, proposer of the vote of thanks.
They and the Westhoughton Senior Team would be going forward to the next stage in the competition, to be held in Bolton in February.
The Jack Cowburn Cup was presented to the winners by Bernard Howes and Margaret Cowburn, together with a book token for each winning team member.
Bernard Howes and his fellow judges, Mrs Sheena Yates and Ms Jeanna Solomon, were thanked for their work. Thanks were also expressed to Margaret Cowburn for her consistent interest and support for Youth Speaks.
Tribute was paid to the continuing commitment of the teachers of both Westhoughton and Ladybridge High Schools to their students and this competition.