Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast exploring the topics of business, education,
technology and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Join me weekly as my team and I produce content that's informative, positive, fun and uplifting.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
In today's episode, we dive into the topic of politics.
I know what you're thinking, I thought this show was steering clear of politics.
Well we are.
We're still committed to not getting into the larger political hot topics of our time.
However in this episode, we'll talk about the topic and function of the Student Council
with two of its members and then we've asked these two members to hold an on air debate.
But before we get into our first segment, let's hear our quote of the day and get some headline
news.
Our quote of the day comes from Doug Franklin.
He's quoted to have said, leadership is not about top down decisions, but it's about caring
for people and their dreams.
This quote suggests that effective leadership is not solely about making decisions from
a position of authority, but rather it involves empathetic understanding and supporting individuals
and their aspirations.
It implies that a leader should prioritize the well-being and aspirations of their team
members, fostering an environment of trust and motivation.
And here are some global political news that have been taking most of the airwaves for
the last week or so.
Here's some news from the U.S. Following dissatisfaction from the Republican Party,
Kevin McCarthy has been removed from his position as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
by six votes.
The outstaying follows a collaboration between McCarthy and the Democratic Party in order
to avoid a U.S. government shutdown.
This is the first time a House Speaker has been successfully vacated.
An election to fill up the spot is still ongoing.
Moving on, as tensions start rising with the Mexico 2024 general elections, there has been
conflict among those in the political scene.
Former President Fox, who is known for his controversial statements online, has recently
posted yet another controversial statement against another leading candidate.
However, experts are simply brushing off Fox's comments, stating that they are completely
irrelevant in the Mexican political debate.
Now, a surprise terrorist attack in southern Israel on October 7th has put Israel on a
war footing.
The horrific acts that were conducted have most of the international community outraged.
The Middle East is in yet another regional conflict in which diplomacy will be one of
the keys in helping mitigate tensions and establish peace.
Thank you for the quote and the news.
Now let's get into our first segment.
I'm joined by co-hosts Premi and Chania and two student council members, Xander and
Gusty.
Chania will get us started.
Welcome to the show.
Please introduce yourself and let us know what grade you're in and how many years you've
been at ICS.
So hi, my name is Xander.
I'm currently the president for the student council here at ICS.
I've been here since K4 for so now about 14 years.
Hi, my name is Gusty.
I'm in grade 12 as well.
I'm the student council vice president.
I've been here since K5.
So this is my 13th year.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Our first get to know you question is what is your favorite subject in school and why?
That's a great question.
So for me personally, there's many subjects I do like, so my interests often span politics,
business, economics.
But I think my most favorite class that might be shockingly not even from those categories
of subjects is AP psychology.
So I think there's a lot of like interesting concepts that I was learning with Mrs. Julia.
And I think being able to put names to a lot of the phenomenons that we see in the world
is quite interesting to me.
And also, Mrs. Julia has a lot of games that are psychologically proof to make you interested
in the subject.
So I think that's my favorite subject at the moment.
For me, I like AP physics the most.
Xander is normally the humanities kid and I'm the STEM kid of us two.
So I like AP physics because mainly because of how hands on it is with all the labs and
whatnot.
They're all really fun.
I know Yen Hao might disagree.
I really like AP physics because of the fun activities we get to do such as throwing water
off the fourth floor.
And one more get to know you question.
If you were to be president or prime minister for just one month, what would you do?
So the joke answer that I have is that I would do what Joe Biden has, which is a button on
his desk when he presses it.
Someone would deliver ice cream in under 10 seconds.
But the more serious answer is something I'm doing related to my community service project
for capstone, which is I'm currently working with the Thailand Department of Corrections
to help incarcerated individuals.
I think as president or prime minister, I would have the power to give individuals parole,
especially in the cases where they were wrongfully convicted.
So that would be the first thing I would prioritize.
That's really inspiring.
Yeah, okay.
By my response, I think you could tell who prepared the response and who's freestyling.
But I would get rid of ROTC, something that I, Xander and Yen-Hao all dislike.
It's a waste of a Saturday and I don't think we're going to wage any wars against any
country soon.
So I think that's fair.
Oh, well, okay.
Moving on to some questions about the student council.
What role do you currently hold and can you explain what responsibilities come with that
role?
Yeah, for sure.
So, I'm the president, as I mentioned in the introduction, and the two main jobs that
I have is firstly, I lead a lot of the meetings that we have.
So we have meetings every single day one during lunchtime after chapel.
And I do talking like 80% of the time and the other 20% is Gusty's interjections.
And I often do things like plan details for student council and keep everybody on track.
Secondly, though, I also do a lot of communication within and outside of the student council.
So I talk to a lot of administrators about various school events.
I also contact things like hotels for the banquet that we're going to be having in
April.
Yeah, so my role as the vice president is kind of as Xander's right hand man.
As Xander said already, my 20% of interjections during meetings really, you know, really,
really helps.
But I think my main role is really behind the scenes with the Google Forms and Google
Sheets.
That's where I don't want to brag, but that's where I shine.
So I handle a lot of the logistics side of the student council.
Continuing on with the topic of roles on the student council, what are the other roles
associated with the student council and what responsibilities do those roles have?
So broadly, there are four more roles that exist in student council.
So the first is secretary, which everyone also votes for.
So these individuals, Minjae this year, keeps track of all of the meeting notes that we
have every single week.
And they also help us contact anything that we need help with.
So for instance, if we need help with hosting ICS got talent, which shameless plug is happening
in a few weeks in October, then I would say that these individuals or Minjae helps contact
Mr. Micah, for instance, and plan out things or send all the list of the acts that he needs
to prepare for.
We also have a treasurer who keeps track of all of the money that we have.
And they also deal with things like having a QR code to help make it more accessible
to a lot of individuals, given that we're now in quote unquote, the digital age where
everyone has everyone and their mother has their own bank account online.
So I think that also helps with like making transactions as well.
Yeah, so I'm going to talk about the PRs and reps.
The PRs are really the unsung heroes of student council.
They do so much behind the scenes.
They do all the art, all of the social media stuff.
They also help out with buying physical objects such as shirts or getting connections.
And in the PR group as well, we have a new committee this year for the sponsorship committee,
which we yoinked Yoel from the senior council over.
And he's helping us with some sponsorships for events such as ICS Got Talent or Banquet.
And last but not least, we have the PRs who were elected by their own grade.
Oh, sorry, reps who were elected by their own grade.
So as for reps, these are the liaisons within each individual grade.
So everybody votes on them the prior year or in the case of upcoming eighth graders,
you voted at the beginning of your ninth grade year.
And usually these individuals communicate through line, through email to everybody within
their grade about potential events that's coming up so that everybody, nobody is left
behind.
And I think that's crucial in terms of school wide events, things like Spirit Week, where
everyone needs to know what themes is coming up so they can also dress up accordingly as
well.
All right.
Thank you so much.
And I do feel like so many of the times, like if you're not directly involved in the student
council, you might not know what each title and what roles does each title have to do.
So that's really helpful and insightful.
Thank you.
And now diving into a more personal question, what inspired you to become involved with
the student council?
So context, I've been in the student council for two years.
The first year I did it because I felt as if I just wanted to give back to the community
that raised me for such a long time.
But I think upon being part of the student council, I think what made me stay was the
group of individuals who are so incredibly driven to make school a pleasant experience.
So originally, I wasn't going to run for president, as many people probably wouldn't know.
I was only going to do student council for one year.
But as an 11th grade rep, when I literally shared blood, sweat, and tears with every
single one of other members in the student council during hosting things like banquet
or ICS Got Talent, I feel like the level of camaraderie made me want to stay for one more
year or at the very least, be president and help give back to like help create that same
environment for future generations as well.
Yeah, for me, I think Xander hit on a lot of the points that I want to talk about, which
are the sense of camaraderie, the spirit that we all have together, the suffering with each
other.
But what drove me to run for vice president this year was just to finally have a position
that can make an impact.
I was the rep in 10th grade, but I felt like my voice wasn't as heard in the student council.
So I want to come back for one more year to try to get my voice heard or try to actually
make an impact on the student council.
Now on to some challenges.
What kind of challenges does the student council face throughout the year?
I think the biggest one is deadlines and not just any deadlines, but specifically small
internal deadlines that's very easy for you to forget about.
So for instance, sending an email to one particular teacher might not cross your mind until two
days before the event.
And that might cause you needing to scramble to write one and send it out.
But I think what uniquely helps with that is Gussie's position as vice president, where
he also does a lot of things with Google Sheets to have the itinerary of everything we have
to do for a particular event.
And in doing so, it makes it so easy for everyone to see what they have to do.
But yeah, for sure, internal deadlines are what is going to destroy or make or break
any student council.
Okay, this is ironic because Xander just praised me about how organized I am with my itinerary
because I forgot to email Miss Jen.
Another role or problem that we may have in student council is definitely the money situation.
Yeah, we make a lot from ICS Got Talent, but we also lose a lot from Banquet.
So we really try to even that out so we don't make a loss from our year.
So that's why we brought on Alon Yoel to form the sponsorship committee as well, just to
make sure we have enough money for next year as well.
Those would be some hard challenges.
All right, and we know that coordinating and working with so many different groups can
be a challenge as well.
In what ways does the student council collaborate with school administrators, teachers, and
other community members in order to promote positive improvements within the school?
So I think the first word that comes to mind is communication.
So in particular, what we do a lot is not just communicate as I previously mentioned
internally, but we also communicate with other individuals.
So a great example is Spirit Week where we had to contact the middle school principal,
Mrs. Karen, and also the elementary school principal, Mrs. Donnie, in order to be able
to coordinate things like themes and days with them so that ICS is able to have a schoolwide
spirit and not just a high school spirit.
And I think in those instances, it showcases how communication is a key component of the
student council where we have to not only be on track, but we also have to be good liaisons
between middle school, high school, and every single facet of the ICS community.
I also want to point out the fact that it is the student council and it's made for students.
So I believe that collaboration or the student council helping out the student body is an
important role in which, for example, we have tried to open up the cafe in the ARC back
up to the students even during school times.
So we are doing stuff for the student body, not just for us.
And to end this first segment, could you talk about any major projects or events that the
student council has organized?
So we have ICS Got Talent obviously coming up soon, but something I want to spotlight
or something I really enjoyed was working with the administrators for preview day.
So for, we did this two times this year.
So we gave parents an introduction and a tour to ICS and we walked around with them, took
them on the tour.
And I think this event was particularly memorable for me because that's when you feel as if
you are actually a mascot for ICS and you actually feel involved in the community.
Because oftentimes working in the student council can seem a bit isolated at times or
if like feels as if you're your own island of group of individuals.
But when you're actually able to immerse yourself within those environments, that's when you
feel the true impact you have as a student council.
Yeah.
And what Zander forgot to mention was he made two amazing speeches for preview day.
But one of the major projects that I don't believe Zander mentioned was Banquet.
We hold Banquet for the joy of the students.
And as I said before, we make a loss from it, but I believe it's a loss we're willing
to make to see everyone smile, be happy, or maybe even dance around.
So it is something that I feel like brings the high school community closer together.
So it's again, a loss we're willing to make.
And that concludes our first segment.
We'll be right back with our second segment right after this short announcement.
Welcome back from a break.
Hopefully you got some rest and spent time with friends and families.
Our volleyball and soccer season is almost over for this school year.
Thanks to our fantastic athletes for all the hard work you've done for ICS.
Oh, by the way, congratulations to the boys varsity soccer team for winning first place
in the ACSC tournament.
Our basketball season is coming soon.
Remember to support them as well in our next sports season.
Moving on to theater, our Seussical the musical is coming up.
Don't forget everyone, Seussical tickets are out.
Show day is on November 22nd and 23rd.
Come support our ICS actors and actresses.
We are back with Zander and Gusty.
In this segment, they have both agreed to hold a debate over two political topics that
are relevant to our school.
In order to make this as real as possible, they have already been given the topics, but
they do not yet know which side they'll be debating.
Okay, Premi will get us started.
Our first prompt is this.
Should students only be allowed to attend school for four days of the week?
And Zander, you are arguing for, so you are arguing that yes, students should be allowed
to attend four days of the week and Gusty, you will be arguing against.
I think the main reason why students should only have four days weeks, us four days school
days of school is because I think it gives kids a lot of time to be able to rest and
catch up on missing work.
And even if it's the case that teachers are going to assign more homework, I think that
allowed kids to go at their own pace, whereas in school, they're confined to the classroom
and confined to a time limit like this debate.
I am first of all nervous because I'm debating as a Thai national team member, but also I
believe that a five day school week is superior because the point of going to school is to
learn and if you go there for only four days a week, you're getting either a limited number
of classes or those classes will have to be really rushed.
So you won't have time to understand the content well enough.
So I believe even though spreading it out into five days is more days of learning for
a student, it is more beneficial for the student and for the purpose of the school.
If I'm responding to that, I would say that the purpose of school is to be able to provide
kids with the best learning experience as possible.
And given the different permutations of how kids want to learn, whether they're visual
learners, whether they're audio learners, being able to go online and learn through
like the internet for example, allows kids to experience school in a more open way.
And in that respect allows kids to also explore things like creativity.
Okay, I just want to say Zadar and I have both done online pre-calculus and both of
us hated it.
We both cannot understand anything because we did not have a proper teacher or anyone
to guide us through the course.
So I believe, I think Zander agrees with his own statement, but because I believe teachers
are essential to the learning process.
I beg to differ.
So I actually took two courses.
So I took online pre-calculus and also online French.
Actually online French was pretty good.
So I would say it depends on the subject.
It just happens to be that I hate math.
And as previously mentioned, I love humanities.
So I think that's a lie that Gusty is just making.
So you should never trust Gusty.
I don't know why Zander thinks that him taking French online is special because so did I.
I think for people like me who also struggle with deadlines, online learning is a horrible
idea because we have, there's no accountability or any form of, any form of like someone checking
in on you to make sure you're actually working on your assignments.
So procrastination hits you really hard.
All right, wrapping up this prompt and moving on to the next one.
Should schools mandate uniforms?
Gusty, you are for and Zander, you're against.
Man, I feel like I'm the bad time, the bad guy both times.
But okay, sure.
I do think that school uniforms are necessary because it gives all students a sense of community.
It gives everyone kind of just something that they can agree on or that is similar between
all of them.
Because in a school where there's such a diverse community, there should be at least one thing
that brings them together, which is school spirit.
And the best way to bring school spirit to everyone is through a uniform.
I personally think that community and like fostering it can happen in other ways.
Hence why we have the student council and not the student outfits council.
But more importantly, I would say that being able to wear what you want also is a way for
individuals to experience like freedom of expression.
But it also allows kids to be able to decorate their own lives with what they want and kind
of live through like, and when they take photos, they're able to see the different eras of
their life and the different periods of time they go through.
I think at least allows you to see that you went through that phase.
I just want to say your argument of bringing of letting everyone show their own eras is
not a great argument if people have eras that one, they're going to regret or two, are offensive
or in any way harmful.
I feel like if they're allowed to express their ideas or their opinions in a way that
is harmful to others through free dress, I don't believe that it's good to have in a
school setting.
Obviously, there are limitations to what you can wear, so in the United States, for instance,
where there are like no dress code, no uniform, people still have dress codes that they have
to follow.
So I don't think people will show up in offensive clothing necessarily.
But I think in general, what that also ensures is that freedom of expression for kids is
something that kids can partake in and is at least an option that they can undertake.
So perhaps maybe a good compromise between the two is if there's school uniforms, but
you don't have to wear it if you don't want to.
So it's basically free dress day every day, but with uniforms.
Sure, but wearing uniforms is a more economically smart option because you have one set of clothes
or at least multiple sets of the same clothes that you are forced to buy, but you don't
need to think about buying anything else or trying to be creative, which may cost more
money.
So I believe wearing a school uniform is better for those who may not have enough money to
spend on clothes that they really want to wear.
I definitely think that's a valid point to make about the economic aspect of this.
But I think we also have to consider that oftentimes, at least at ICS, the shirts that
you wear, the pants that you wear can often be very costly.
And imposing such a stringent standard for everyone to follow means that families who
are financially distressed for an individual, for example, aren't able to buy those clothing.
So allowing them to also opt into cheaper clothing and be able to wear that also allows
them to access clothing in the same way for like expression, for instance.
Thank you so much for that fun debate.
There you have it.
Xander and Gusty have demonstrated that differing viewpoints and opinions can be logically discussed
while maintaining a cool head.
So thank you guys.
As we end this episode, remember that the ability to rationally and respectively debate
different topics is an important skill to master, especially with today's wide spectrum
of politically charged opinions and beliefs.
Stay tuned for our next episode as we record and release a live interview with the former
professional American football player.
As always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos, and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
Be your Students Incorporated, because your voice matters.