"Why should they stay? This is our land. We were born here!" The year is 2004. The class is at a fictional town meeting in a rural village in Cambridgeshire, England, debating whether or not a group of travelers who have pitched up in a field at the edge of the settlement should be allowed to remain. The debate is coming to a climax, and a final decision is being coaxed out by the chair of the local council committee. However, the debating parties are comprised of about thirty children aged thirteen and fourteen, and the village hall is a makeshift array of black stage blocks and plastic chairs presided over by the drama teacher. This article describes how the author remembered this lesson and what he learned from the debate.