Youth Speaks 2016

Rotary Youth Speaks at the Kirkcudbright Academy 2016


The 2015/16 Youth Speaks Competition sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright took place recently within Kirkcudbright Academy.  Twelve pupils from the school participated with those from the S1 to S3 year group competing for a decorative Quaich whereas the winner of the six pupils drawn from the Senior School was presented with the Jim Scott Memorial Trophy.   On the evening the audience were both entertained and informed by the wide range of topics chosen by the participants which included talks on swimming, on immigration to the UK, and on Lad Culture.    The panel of judges, drawn from the Academy (Mrs Graham), the Community (Mrs Elaine McConnell), and the Rotary Club (Dr Michael Moore) skilfully discharged their difficult duty with their chair person announcing the winners from the Junior School as 1st – Sam Gurling; 2nd – Hamish Denerley; and, 3rd – Emily Hinchliff, with those from the Senior School being 1st – Magnus Riley; 2nd – Rory Grieve; and, 3rd – Esther Weir.   Hannah Wilson was recognised by the judges as the most promising runner-up among the speakers.     The prizes were awarded by the Rotary Vice-President, Chris Ingram, who commended all of the participants for their efforts.   In his closing remarks MC for the event, Gavin Scott, observed that the Competition had been a great success and thanked the English Department of the Academy for supporting and encouraging all of the pupils who had been involved. 


By courtesy of Magnus Riley;-

Youthspeaks Talk


Right lads. We need to have an honest discussion about lad culture. We are breeding yet another generation of idiotic, automaton like drooling males whose mantra is “birds, beer, banter.” There is an entire clothing range dedicated to that bilious motto. This culture has an adverse effect on young males today and it is partially responsible for suicide being the largest killer of young males.

My first point starts with the internet, not the most reliable source in the world but it is home to a large populous of ‘lads’. One of the internet’s most popular ‘memes’ (defined as ‘an image or piece of text, typically humorous in nature, spread rapidly by internet users’) is known as “get back in the kitchen”. Whenever an interesting or inspirational story about a woman surfaces on such repugnant facebook pages as “The Lad Bible” this meme is commented and receives hundreds, if not thousands, of likes. This shows, somewhat amazingly, that large amounts of people still believe, or sympathise with the belief, that the gender roles of around 1905 should apply to this day. Constant studies have, extremely shockingly, proved that women’s purpose is not to wait hand and foot on men?!? Now, obviously such scientific research is incredibly dubious but you would expect that the male species might have moved on from such medieval attitudes but, apparently we are undoing evolution’s years of good work. Half of women spend 13 hours a week on housework. We men are, frankly, hopelessly incompetent. For all the absolute top lads out there you won’t be able to have good ‘banter’ with a good ‘bird’ over some quality ‘beer’ unless you have living quarters above the level of a pigsty. Unfortunately your partner’s role is not to make you food, but to act as a companion, a soulmate, a confidant. NOT A BLEEDING CHEF. So, while women all over the world are doing amazing things like going into space, running multinational businesses and all the other things outwith the kitchen that make them happy, you’re living the high life in a manky apartment, posting and liking idiotic memes on the internet.


In my 16 years on the earth I have met many a ‘jack the lad’ although, unfortunately, never one called jack. Anyway one such delightful fellow regularly expresses disgust if a fellow male touches him at all – saying things like “we look so (insert expletive of choice here) gay.” Here we hit upon problem 2 of lad culture, discrimination against everyone who isn’t a fellow lad. Smart people, women- as I touched on and will touch on again-, foreign people, poor people, the list is practically endless. Lad culture fosters an environment in which everybody who does not chant “boobs, beer, banter” periodically is somebody to be completely alienated. I once witnessed a young girl being told by a classic top lad that her moustache was bigger than the lad in question. Now this behaviour would obviously result in this boy being vilified for brutally abusing a young girl for something outwith her control, right? Wrong. Ladies flock to the lad in question like lads do to banter. This is one of the major issues. Nobody has the guts to stand up to these people due to their popularity. It is one of the most vicious circles.



Every 2 minutes in the United States of America, a woman is raped. This is one of the great failings of humanity. The constant objectification of women as sexual objects by a lad culture in which 57% of rock music videos portray women as sexual objects has resulted in sexual violence increasing by 37% in England and Wales in the last year. Incidents of groping are on the rise in pubs and bars and men’s obsession with one of the ‘3 Bs’ is resulting in an alarming growth rate of the sex offenders register. When women are belittled in any way, but particularly sexually, their trust in males decreases and they often, quite understandably, never recover. These women have their lives absolutely ruined because some jack the lad cannot function like a normal human being. I cannot communicate just how angry it makes me that some ‘people’ (if they can be called that at all) can destroy somebody’s world and how the lad culture trivialises these vile assaults.


Whilst ruining lives in that way lad culture also beats males down and can be blamed to a large degree for the fact that 80% of suicides in this country occur amongst males. In lad culture talking about your feelings is a taboo. A yougov survey revealed that one of the reason men do not talk about their feelings is due to feeling ‘ashamed’. If you become bogged down in your own thoughts and let negative feelings fester you are more likely to commit suicide. There is a reason this is a more of a problem amongst men. Women took the mad step years ago of actually opening up to each other. I speak here firmly off of my moral high horse. Telling my friends about personal issues is one of the hardest things I can do, and responding when I am told is incredibly difficult also. We need to lose the stigma caused by a culture which forbids discussion of important issues in each other’s lives. If we do not we are condemning thousands of males to misery for years to come.


So, lads, we need to sort it out. Now. We are allowing a culture to fester in which the only conversation ever had violates somebody. These conversations breed actions which are some of the most repugnant a human being, lad or not, can commit. Allowing this culture to exist is self-destructive as it helps lead to the suicide of 20 in every 100,000 men in 2013. How about we drink beer in relative moderation, go birdwatching and as for banter? Let’s BAN ter, whatever ter might be.   

Related pages...

REMOTE RYLA 2020

more REMOTE RYLA 2020

Kirkcudbright Rotary and Academy 2017 Young Chef

Rotary Young Chef 2017 Club and Area Finals

more Kirkcudbright Rotary and Academy 2017 Young Chef

Youth Speaks - The Judges - L to R Dr David Devereux (Community)
Mrs A Clelland (Academy)  Mr Mike Kirby  (Rotary-Presiding)

Youth Speaks Nov 2013

more Youth Speaks - Kirkcudbright Academy - Nov 2013

'' Pictured wearing the chef hats given to them by the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright are the five students from Kirkcudbright Academy who took part in this year's Rotary Junior Young Chef competition. Hannah Garside, who won the event, is pictured at

First ever Junior Young Chef 2015

more The first ever Junior Young Chef held at the Academy 2015

Winner Scarlett Carter

Academy Inaugural Spelling Bee

more Kirkcudbright Academy joins the ranks of Spelling Bee with the winner Scarlett Carter

Primary School Quiz - at Callside - Area Semi Finals

Pri Sch Quiz Area Semi Finals

more Penpont goes through -

The Winners

Junior Youth Speaks 2016

more Kirkcudbright Rotary Junior Youth Speaks 2016

Kirkcudbright Primary take first place after hard fought contest

Primary School Quiz - 2018

more Primary School Quiz - 2018

Young Artist 2019

more Young Artist 2019

The 10 entrants from Area with their certificates

Area Finals of the Young Chef 2016

more Kirkcudbright Academy and Rotary hosted this years Area finals of the Rotary Young Chef 2016

The winning team Kirkcudbright receive their certificates and shield from President Dr John Locke

Primary School Quiz 2014

more Primary School Quiz 2014

Primary Spell Bee 2019

more Primary Spell Bee 2019

Outstanding performance by Emma in Regional Young Chef Finals 2014

Young Chef Regional Finals 2014

more Rotary Young Chef Regional Finals held in Glasgow 15th March 2014

A

Rotary

more A 'mouth watering" evening of " Youth" at our weekly club meeting in the Selkirk Arms Hotel

ROTARY YOUNG CHEF REGIONAL FINAL

more ROTARY YOUNG CHEF REGIONAL FINAL 2019

Young Chef 2013

more Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright Young Chef 2013 Kirkcudbright Academy

Kirkcudbright Academy Spell Bee 2019

more Kirkcudbright Academy Spell Bee 2019

Junior Youth Speaks Contestants

Junior Youth Speaks 2013

more Junior Youth Speaks 2013

Winner of The William Hanna Clarke Trophy

Young Artist 2017

more Young Artist 2017

Kerr with Paul

Young Photographer 2015

more Kirkcudbright Rotary round of the Young Photographer 2015

Junior Youth Speaks 2018

more Rotary Junior Youth Speaks 2018

RYLA 2016

more 2016 saw Kirkcudbright put forward another four students to RYLA

Young Chef 2016

Young Chef 2016

more Annual Young Chef - Kirkcudbright Academy and Rotary

Quiz time

more test quiz

Kerr and Paul

Rotary Young Musician 2015

more Rotary Young Musician 2015

Kirkcudbright Rotary and the Academy join forces for the 2016 Young Musician of the Year

Young Musician 2016

more Kirkcudbright Rotary and the Academy join forces for the 2016 Young Musician of the Year

Winner Young Mechanic 2017 -

Young Mechanic 2017

more Young Mechanic 2017 - Ryan Cochran

Cameron with President Dr John Locke on completion of his presentation to the club last Tuesday

RYLA

more Cameron Denerley 16 years of age, Kirkcudbright Academy, represented the Rotary Club of Kirkcudbright at RYLA this year.

The winners

Hearing the Young

more Kirkcudbright Academy Youth Speaks 2018

Millie and Bruno opened our eyes

more Millie and Bruno opened our eyes

The Winners Asha and Stephen

YOUTH SPEAKS 2017

more Kirkcudbright Rotary and Academy Youth Speaks 2017

Dugald Forbes receiving the RI Family and Community Award

Dugald Forbes - Guest Speaker

more Paul Tebay introduced Dugald Forbes as Guest Speaker

Top three places at the Young Musician 2018

Young Musician 2018

more Kirkcudbright Academy and Rotary hold their annual Young Musician 2018

RYLA girls of 2017

more RYLA girls of 2017

The magnificent Junior Youth Speaks contestants

Junior Youth Speaks 2014

more Annual Junior Youth Speaks 2014

Emma Craig

District Young Chef finals Livingston 2018

more Kirkcudbright Academy pupils in District Final

Young Chef District Finals 2019

more Young Chef District Finals 2019

Young Chef

more Young Chef - Area Finals 2019

Primary School Spell Bee

more Annual Primary School Spell Bee 2018

Enthusiastic to the end! Receiving their certificates of participation in the Primary School Quiz 2015  - All Winners!

Primary School Quiz 2015

more Primary School Quiz 2015

Primary School Quiz 2019

more Primary School Quiz 2019

President Chris and the Team

Rotary, Challenge Enterprise and the Young Chef

more A November night to remember....

Junior Youth Speaks 2019

more Junior Youth Speaks 2019

Winning team with President Elect Chris Ingram

Rotary Primary School Quiz 2016

more Our Annual Rotary Primary School Quiz 2016

Jack having received his award in style

Rotary Young Mechanic 2014-15

more Rotary Young Mechanic 2014-15 Jack Hamilton

Isla - Young Chef 2015

Young Chef 2015

more Kirkcudbright Rotary round one, Kirkcudbright Academy - Young Chef 2015

Academy Prizegivng

Kirkcudbright Academy Prizegiving 2014

more Kirkcudbright Academy Prizegiving 2014

Rotary Young Artist 2016 Winners with Christine Wimbush and Rotarian Paul Tebay

Young Artist 2016

more Rotary Young Artist 2016 Winners

The Young Chef's ready for the start!

Rotary Club Finals Young Chef 2014

more Rotary Young Chef 2014 Club Finals held at the Kirkcudbright Academy

Rotary Evening of Youth 2018

more Kirkcudbright Rotary Evening of Youth 2018

Ellen Carr

Young Musician 2017

more Kirkcudbright Rotary teamed up with the Kirkcudbright Academy for the 2017 Young Musician

Young Musician 2019

more Young Musician 2019 - Kirkcudbright Academy

Kirkcudbright Academy - Spell Bee 2018

more Kirkcudbright Academy - Spell Bee 2018

District Governor's visit

more Our District Governor Lindsay Craig PHF visited our Club and presented the Young Golfer certificate and met with the Academy Head Prefects.

Young Musician 2020

more Kirkcudbright Academy hold their 2020 Rotary Young Musician

Rotary Young Chef 2018

more Rotary Young Chef 2018 Kirkcudbright Rotary in partnership with Kirkcudbright Academy supported by Castle Maclellen took place today 7th Nov -

Paul and John with Café Academy

Cafe Academy

more Paul and John attending support meeting of Cafe Academy

SW Area Young Chef Finalists

Rotary SW Area Finals Young Chef 2014

more Rotary SW Area Finals Young Chef 2014

Youth Speaks 2019

more Kirkcudbright Academy Youth Speaks 2019

Youth Ambassadors

Youth Ambassadors

more Kirkcudbright Rotary in Tandem with Kirkcudbright Academy - Norway Visit 2017

Kirkcudbright Rotary Young Chef 2019

more Kirkcudbright Rotary Young Chef 2019

Winner 2017 - Emma Carstairs

Rotary Primary School Spell Bee 2017

more Annual spelling competition for 2017 with Primary Schools

Action Enterprise

more Kirkcudbright Academy -Action Enterprise

Young Chef District Finals Livingston - Emma goes through

more Emma is runner up and goes forward to the Regional Finals

Kirkcudbright Primary host to our Spell Bee

Spell Bee

more Kirkcudbright Primary hosts our annual Spell Bee

Winner Morgan with his

Young Mechanic

more Rotary along with Kirkcudbright Academy - annual Young Mechanic

Kirkcudbright Academy - Rotary Youth Speaks 2016

Rotary Youth Speaks 2016

more Kirkcudbright Academy - Rotary Youth Speaks 2016

Junior Youth Speaks - Winner 2015

Junior Youth Speaks

more

The Young Chefs ready to go ....

Rotary Young Chef Area Finals 2015

more Rotary Young Chef Area Finals 2015

Rotary supports visit to Spain

Spain here we come

more Rotary supports visit to Spain

Young Mechanic 2018

more Kirkcudbright Academy Young Mechanic 2018

Jade McTaggert - Young Achiever
Young Achievers from Kirkcudbright Primary

Young Achiever

more Kirkcudbright Rotary Young Achiever

Winner  Spell Bee 2016

Spell Bee

more Annual Primary School Spell Bee

Cameron Denerley receives RYLA certificate from Rotarian Paul Tebay

Academy RYLA Presentation

more RYLA certificate presentation by Rotary at Kirkcudbright Academy

Kirkcudbright in Victory

Primary School Quiz 2017

more Gatehouse again hosted our annual Rotary Primary School Quiz

Primary School Quiz 2020

more Primary School Quiz 2020

Max Wright  - winner 2015 - from Gatehouse Primary

Rotary Spell Bee 2015

more Winner Max Wright - from Gatehouse Primary - Kirkcudbright Rotary annual Spell Bee 2015

2017 Competitors - Junior Youth Speaks

Junior Youth Speaks 2017

more Kirkcudbright Rotary along with the 5 Primary Schools - Annual Junior Youth Speaks

Junior Youth Speaks 2016

Junior Youth Speaks 2016

more Rotary Junior Youth Speaks 2016

Action Enterprise

more Kirkcudbright Academy - Action Enterprise

Hope and Phillipa - Rotary Cook in

more Hope and Phillipa - Rotary Cook in

End of another year

more End of another year

Norway Exchange

more Norway Exchange

Guest Speaker Amy Hall on return from Honduras

Amy returns from Honduras

more Amy joined the Honduras Medical Brigade

Young Photographer 2017 - Sam Forsyth

Young Photographer 2017

more Young Photographer 2017

The Rector with two of the Team

Youth Ambassadors

more Rotary in tandem with Kirkcudbright Academy - Norway visit

Tess with President Chris

NEPAL Presentation

more NEPAL - Student Tess Syed-Tollan returns to give evening Presentation.

  Youth Convenor Paul Tebay presenting a cheque from Kirkcdudbright Rotary Club for £100 to Sara Jackson, Young Carers Manager of the Dumfries and Galloway Young Carers Project, at the Galloway Activity Centre. The money will help to meet the cost of

Young Carers

more Young Carers new project

Rotary attends Army Cadet Presentation

Army Cadet Invite

more Rotary invited to attend Army Cadet Presentation

Paul Tebay receives cheque from outgoing Head Girl, showing a grand joint total of £500

Microfinance Project

more Kirkcudbright Rotary along with Kirkcudbright Academy - "Microfinance Project"

Gatehouse of Fleet - District Winners

Primary School Quiz - District Finals

more Rotary District 1020 annual Primary School Quiz Finals 2016

The

The

more Rotary and the Kirkcudbright Academy agreed to take on a Chef challenge

Young Golfers 2015 John and Nathan
(With the pillar of strength chipped out of Granite)

Young Golfer 2015

more

Young Photographer 2015

more

Kerr with Paul

Rotary Young Photographer 2015

more Kirkcudbright Rotary Club round of the 2015 Rotary Young Photographer

President Colin with the Senior and Junior Youth Speaks Winners

Youth Speaks 2014

more Annual Rotary / Academy Youth Speaks

Old Creamery Site visit

more Old Creamery site visit with Academy pupils

Youth Speaks

more Youth Speaks Competition at The Academy

Junior Youth Speaks

more Junior Youth Speaks at Kirkcudbright Primary School

Young Chef 2013/14 - Area Final

more Area Final at Kirkcudbright Academy

Primary School Quiz 2013/14

more at Gatehouse Primary School

Spelling Bee

more

President Colin with the Senior and Junior Youth Speaks Winners

Youth Speaks 2014

more Annual Rotary / Academy Youth Speaks President Colin with Senior and Junior Winners

back to page above this...

Magnus and Sam join our Rotary Club evening

Youth Service

back Kirkcudbright Rotary is justly proud of its Youth Service record