GPS Debating

Round 3 vs Sydney Grammar School

In the first away debate of the season, the Shore Debaters travelled to Sydney Grammar School to debate on topics around education. The Shore teams built on earlier successes, putting in their best ever performance against the Grammar debating juggernaut. Shore claimed victory in all the Junior A teams, and the Seconds also claimed a decisive victory.

The Year 7 teams negated the topic “We should ban home-schooling”, once again coming away with wins in the 7As and 7Bs and a close defeat in the 7Cs. The teams emphasised the importance of allowing parents to choose whether their child should attend school and also the availability of flexible learning options in a post COVID-19 world.  

There were mixed results from the Year 8 and Year 9 teams, who argued against the topic “It should be compulsory to do subjects from all subject areas throughout high school.” The 8A and 9A teams both came away with victories against strong Grammar sides. They highlighted the value of allowing students to determine their subjects and the importance of specialisation in areas of interest. The B and C teams struggled to get over the line and came off second best but developed valuable debating skills in the process.

The Year 10 teams were given the task of arguing against the topic “Literature classes in high school should only teach texts from the 21st century.” Both the Year 10 teams argued about the importance of maintaining a variety of texts in the curriculum, highlighting the value of studying the likes of Shakespeare, Dickens and Orwell. Unfortunately, it was Grammar’s argument that swayed the adjudicators with both teams suffering narrow defeats.

Debating the same topic as Year 10, the results in the Opens debates were much less favourable, with losses for the First, Second and Third teams. The one bright light among the shadows were the mighty Fourths, comprised of Max McAlpine, Charlie Ashton and Tom Wait, who secured the Opens’ sole win in their first debate of the season. Frustration was the theme in the Seconds and Thirds who came close, but were unable to snatch a win.

The Opens teams had the formidable task for arguing against the motion “Tertiary education should be free.” Many examples of Whitlam Era reforms were brought up by the Grammar teams and our teams were challenged to argue in favour of a more balanced Tertiary Education reform. Unfortunately, the Firsts and Thirds were unable to sway the adjudicator in our favour.

The performance of the night goes to the Seconds teams consisting of Blake Fite, Aaron Rucinski, Jimmy Nicholas and Lachie Hunt. The debate opened with a strong rebuttal of the affirmative’s case by Blake. Blake highlighted the economic flaws of the affirmative’s case, while also arguing that the model would not improve educational outcomes for the most vulnerable stakeholders. Aaron and Jimmy built on this momentum by continuing to attack the opposition’s model, while identifying the merits of the status quo. The adjudicator in his judgement commended the boys on the quality of their speeches and it was one of the most commanding performances by a Shore team.

Next week, we head to The King’s School for another away debate on topics of Media, Culture and Entertainment. Debaters are welcome to take the opportunity to watch some Netflix in preparation for the debates.

Mesake Taulawakeiaho
Captain of Debating