To kick off our International Women's Day series, we sat down with Debate Mate’s CEO and Founder, former barrister Margaret McCabe. We talked about her legal career, her motivation for founding Debate Mate, and why happiness is at the heart of our debating curriculum.
What drove your decision to go into the legal profession?
It really began with my parents trying to steer me into law or medicine, because that was what was expected of someone who was passionate about learning. Once I was there, however, I knew it was the right choice. But it wasn’t without its challenges - I came from Australia into the establishment in England which is predominantly Oxbridge graduates. There were a lot of obstacles. There were very few women when I started, but my philosophy was “I’ll just keep going until I fail.”
Why did you set up Debate Mate?
In 2005 I was doing some work in British politics, and I couldn’t understand why such a wealthy country had such high rates of poverty with such limited social mobility. No one was really talking about it. That started me on a path to setting up Debate Mate, and I learned a lot about what poverty is in the UK and what it looks like, which provoked me to think about how people could get out of poverty.
I saw the impact that debating had had on my daughter, how it improved her confidence. When I was working, it became apparent that children were coming out of school without basic skills that are essential in the 21st century. All of the research from top leading institutions said that young people coming out of mainstream education needed communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. I thought, “that’s really interesting because that’s exactly what debating teaches.” So I set out to develop a programme to teach debating in schools across the world.
What’s your vision for the future of DM?
We want to continue to make our courses accessible to all young people across the world. Since the pandemic began, we’ve moved our courses online and had people sign up globally. We want all young people to have access to these skills and moving online has enabled us to expand our programme for a fraction of the price.
What role does happiness play in the DM curriculum?
We’ve built a ‘happiness habit’ into the programme, which we will be expanding over the next few years. The 3 parts of this habit join mind, body, and spirit, which allows people to reach their full potential. The most important part is the gratitude habit, the second part is mindfulness, and the third part is exercise.
Practising gratitude has been proven to contribute towards happiness, resilience, and improving work performance. Mindfulness is also crucial to reduce stress and pressure. Take a deep breath in, count to 10, and let it go. While doing so, I always think of things I’m grateful for – not general things, like my health, but specific things like that I was able to go out for a run today, or that I worked well with my colleagues. We practice this mindfulness and gratitude with our students whenever we can, and it really is at the heart of our work.
