GPS Debating Round 1 vs Joeys Report
J. G. Nicholas
LAST FRIDAY, JOEYS HOSTED SHORE on topics related to education, and our debaters were victorious in 9 of 12 debates in a dominant night at the podium for the men in white and grey.
Keen to continue their strong showing in the ISDA competition, our 7A and B sides negated the rather topical motion, ‘That the use of Chat GPT should be actively encouraged in schools.’ Fresh off the bus and likely with holiday excitement lingering, the A’s were complacent in their choice of countermodel and were ultimately defeated by an inferior opponent. Our B’s, on the other hand spoke eloquently in their first outing of the season, shining with their gentlemanly behaviour in stark contrast to their opposition. All speakers were excellent, showcasing their strength in both substantive and rebuttal.
Seeking revenge for the Firsts’ loss on the rugby field to St. Josephs the previous weekend, our 8A, B and C teams displayed their oratory prowess winning all three debates negating the topic- ‘That it should be compulsory for all students to complete at least one creative subject in the HSC.’ Oliver Dorney starred for the A’s as they cruised to a decisive victory against strong opposition, whilst the B’s unified thematic attack proved too much for their opponents. With the C’s dominant win, punctuated by their refined manner and intelligent argumentation, our Year 8’s should be extremely confident heading into next week’s highly anticipated matchup with St. Ignatius.
Our Year 9’s experienced mixed success negating the same motion as the Year 8 teams, ‘That it should be compulsory for all students to complete at least one creative subject in the HSC.’ Despite their finals-run, the A’s ultimately came up short with Old Boy coach Will Defina’s only comment on the debate: “Adjudication was woeful.” Conversely, Jono Loy’s career-defining speech drove the B’s to a comprehensive victory, coherently synthesising his rebuttal and substantive to snatch a well-deserved victory.
Similar success was enjoyed by our Year 10’s looking to reassert their status as premiership-threats following a hit-or-miss ISDA campaign, winning both debates negating the topic –‘That Australia should shift to a US style college-admissions system.’ Requiring quite a significant degree of prior knowledge as to the nature of US college admissions, the inevitable Angus Leslie demonstrated the importance of wide reading as he spearheaded the A’s convincing victory against a resolute Joeys side. The B’s did well navigating a rather messy debate where Angus’ topical knowledge could’ve come in handy, Taj Gupta’s methodical destruction of their opposition at first negative was instrumental in setting the stage for yet another Shore triumph.
Invigorated by the return of Old Boy coach ‘King Kevin’ Shen to Shore debating, the 3rds added a narrow-W to their season tally, negating the interesting topic ‘This house regrets the increase in ADHD diagnoses, and the medication of those diagnosed, amongst senior high school students.’ With Braden Dent as the stand-out speaker, the lads effectively argued the need to cater for neurodiversity within the high school system, outweighing the potential harms of misdiagnosis.
3rds celebrating their defence of the bridge at Joeys
Negating the same topic, the 2nds looked to translate their incredible success and semi-finals run in the ISDA competition, negating the same topic as the 3rds with their revamped starting line-up consisting of rookie Callum Vujanovic, veteran talent Max Kim, Daniel ‘based’ Kang(ers) and two-way contract player Aaron Rucinski. Whilst the boys spoke well, they failed to effectively weigh-up their thematic and ultimately went down to the reigning GPS 2nds premiers Joeys in a close contest.
Robbed of a joint premiership with their opponent Joeys in the previous GPS season, Shore’s best, the 1sts prevailed in a highly anticipated matchup against one of the stronger sides in the draw. Negating the same topic as the 2nds and 3rds, Blake Fite enlightened the boys as to every nuance of ADHD diagnostic practices, treatments and side-effects in prep whilst the diplomatic Lachlan Hunt attempted to track his brain-dump on the whiteboard. Setting up a formidable counter-offensive, the boys entered the colosseum confident of a victory. As expected, the Joeys boys attempted to highlight the great inequality between private and publicly educated students exacerbated by the uptake in ADHD treatment at the high school level. Whilst this line of argument ultimately withstood the Shore lads’ refute, debating import Michael Kwak effectively repositioned the debate in his delineation of the ever-cited ‘counterfactual,’ whereby a world of over-diagnosis was deemed favourable to one without. Despite a questionable 3rd negative speech from the rusty Jimmy Nicholas, the boys took a close victory that puts them in good stead for what is sure to be an exciting GPS season.
This Friday, the men in white and grey return to the podium against Riverview and look to cement their places at the top of the GPS tally as the season continues.
The GPS 1sts defending the bridge at Joeys, again….