On 20^th September 2022, six Aquinas boys from the Middle and Senior School were selected to represent Aquinas at the 2022 Perth Philosothon Competition at UWA. Overall, there were 120 students attending across the state representing their schools. The event consisted of four rounds. The first two rounds were year level Philosothon discussions, followed by two open rounds with mixed year groups. The four topics were, “What is the value of art?”, “Is it fair to split sports into female and male divisions?”, “Is a hole something or nothing?” and “Should we welcome our cyborg future, and what is the difference between humans and cyborgs?”. Lively discussions and questioning took place on each of these topics between students and schools, coordinated and marked by facilitators and judges for each group based on three key criteria; creative, critical and collaborative thinking. After 2 and a half hours of philosophical discussions presentations took place. There were places for each year level, the most promising speaker awards and the overall winning school of the night. This went to PLC, but the Aquinas boys battled it out well in all year groups and discussions. I was fortunate enough to be presented with the Most Promising Philosopher’s Award! Well done to all the boys and a big thank you to Mrs Monks for organising the event, getting us there and supporting us throughout. It was a really fun and rewarding experience, and we will be back next year to try and take out the winning school award!

Hudson Woods-Smith
Year 7