Through our semifinal we heard many of the amazing speeches again, and had the tough decision of selecting students to go through to the final certainly wasn’t an easy task.
This year’s finalists were Hayley Liu, Violet Tucker (Year 12s), Emilia Young and Zara Oliyath (Year 11s) competing for the Senior Soapbox trophy, and Beatrix Edgar (Y7), Jasmine Hughes, Nina Jensen (Year 8s), Eloise Lim and Hazel Mulligan (Year 9s) in the junior section.
The final was held in the Sports Centre on Thursday afternoon. Our finalists stepped up onto the Soapbox and did themselves proud, sharing a wide range of ethical issues.
Once again, judging proved to be difficult but our wonderful teacher judges, Mrs Lewis, Ms Eugster, Ms McFarland and Mr Bennett, took up this challenge, and after careful consideration, Jasmine Hughes (Year 8) was selected as the winner of the junior competition and Emilia Young (Year 11) as the senior school champion.
Emilia challenged us to think about the ethics of family vlogging – the way young children are often exploited for profit on social media.
Jasmine’s speech, entitled ‘why being a Swiftie is unethical’ made us think about the impact of following trends, using the example of a Taylor Swift bracelet to illustrate her point.
This year, a goal of the Ethics Council is to highlight the ethics found in the curriculum. This was highlighted through a collection of speeches by teachers at the final, sharing a little something about how ethics is relevant in their subject areas, or about an issue about which they feel strongly. Students loved hearing from their teachers and I wish to express my gratitude for the teachers who volunteered to do this.
A huge congratulations to all who participated throughout Soapbox 2024. Special mention must go to Maya Willis, Talia Wood and Lucy Kilgour, our amazing Ethics Prefect team, for all the hard work and effort they have put in over Term 1, especially as we moved closer to the final.
We look forward to seeing everyone at other ethics events that we have planned for the rest of the year.
Rebecca Berry Eden (Director, Dio Centre for Ethics)
