Today, perhaps more than ever, it's vital that we can disagree without being disagreeable. This principle is at the heart of debating. Lewis Iwu, Director of the Fair Education Alliance, argues that debating builds character, confidence and emotional resilience: vital skills for narrowing the education gap.

Lewis Iwu read politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, where he was elected President of the students’ union. Lewis is an active debating coach, having coached the national teams of Hong Kong in 2006, the United Arab Emirates in 2010 and 2011, and the ESU England schools debating team in 2012. He is a former World Universities Debating Champion. Lewis also helped set up Debate Mate, which teaches debating in more than 240 state schools in some of the UK’s most deprived areas. He is currently the Director of the Fair Education Alliance. The alliance of 55 organisations, including universities, companies and NGOs seeks to tackle education inequality and increase social mobility across the UK.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx