Debating Report Octos and LND
M. D. Kwak
IT’S BEEN A TURBULENT COUPLE WEEKS FOR SHORE DEBATING in their octo rounds with some more promising news in the LND competition.
First on SDC: Year 7 debated ‘That we should ban social media in schools,’ losing one and winning one debate. Years 8 and 9 debated ‘That governments should heavily subsidise print media (e.g. newspapers, magazines etc,),’ winning all debates!! Congrats boys – keep up the great work!
Our Year 7 LND team (s) debated ‘That we should ban mobile phones for people under 18 years old.’ The team should be proud of their strong win to start off the season, displaying excellent team dynamic and rebuttal down the bench. There was excellent allocation and stakeholder analysis from Lucas in his first ever 1st speaker role.
Our Year 8 LND teams debated ‘That we should ban fast food advertising.’ Year 8 LND 1 successfully negated the topic and were able to prove the ineffectiveness of the opposition’s model and also the harms to freedom of choice and the economy. Congrats to Archie for being debater of the week.
Year 8 LND 2 also picked up a big win affirming the same topic. The boys were able to argue persuasively that fast food chains targeted advertising (e.g. Maccas Monopoly promotion) towards kids and people in lower SES groups and they were awarded the two major clashes in the debate; a good win to start the season.
Year 7 ISDA debated ‘That it should be mandatory to use your real identity online.’ Unfortunately, Shore lost what was a very close debate to a strong Sydney Grammar School side. All speakers spoke well and provided nuanced arguments that built upon the strong foundation set up by Aaron at 1st. Bad luck lads – nevertheless, you should be incredibly proud of your strong season. I have high hopes for your future seasons. 🤩
Year 9 debated the topic ‘That companies should be able to fire employees for their personal social media accounts’. Shore gave a strong principled argument on the importance of safety; however their limited characterisation allowed for the negative team to prove the importance of freedom of speech and ultimately win this debate. Congrats to Rian for his perfect first affirmative structure throughout his speech.
Year 10 affirmed ‘That we should give dictators immunity in return for their resignation’ A devastating end for Year 10 – though a unified debate, with some of our strongest speeches – the team unfortunately did not effectively mechanise our model as clearly as we could have.
An unfortunate loss – nevertheless, should be proud of a great season.
Ms Wolsley did not send in a debating report for the Senior Bs. I can only assume this means:
- She is busy with the million other things going on
- But more likely, her disappointment is immeasurable and the shock of grief so monumental that words cannot put them into coherent form.
Unfortunately, the exceedingly charismatic 4-man team (accentuated by the absence of ‘E-Giant Qiao’) lost in the motion ‘That we should ban public figures from endorsing political candidates or parties.’ Nevertheless, congrats to Callum, Ramoon, Michael, Angus and Eric for a hard-fought and enjoyable season. They’re coming back stronger than ever for GPS.
Senior A did themselves proud, affirming the difficult proposition of preventing celebrities from making political endorsements. Unfortunately, Shore did not manage to eke out a win, but the team should be enormously proud of the progress they have made this season.
Senior A’s hard at work. What is Daniel looking at though.
The losses are a shame, but all we can do is move on from this to better and bigger things. For boys feeling some disappointment, all I can say is that it’ll pass soon (although I’m personally still not over it despite it being three-plus weeks later). There’s always next year, and at the end of the day, debating is all about what you learn, the fun you have and the memories you take away.
There’s a second chance for all teams as the GPS season rolls around soon. Trials start Week 6 Friday at the Playfair 3pm! There’s plenty of team spots available so I’d encourage you all to come along and get around the debating.