ISDA Debating Report Round 5 vs Cranbrook
M. D. Kwak
Last Friday, Shore was away against Cranbrook debating topics surrounding media, and won four out of six debates in the highschool rounds. There has yet to be a week where Shore has lost more than half its debates. KEEP IT UP!!!
Our Primary As and Bs negated ‘That coding and computer programming should be taught in primary schools each week’ and unfortunately went down in both debates. Shoutout to Joseph at third for his strong thematic rebuttal.
Our Year 7 LND teams both won on the negative side of ‘That all video games should have playable female characters’. Congrats to Alex Baxter for his excellent food-based analogy about familiarity and downsides of rapid change.
Our Year 8 LND team affirmed ‘That we should introduce gender quotas for all government jobs’ and picked up yet another W. The team presented a well thought out model and strong case in what was a decisive win for Shore.
Year 8 SDC with the photogenic Lawson Banks in the background
SDC is going as strong as ever, with teams picking up three wins and three losses and continuing to improve their skills and talents in debating.
All smiles from our Year 7 SDC team
The Year 7 ISDA team negated ‘That we should ban children from making money off social media’. Despite a large amount of under-mechanisation and mischaracterisation by both sides, ultimately it was Shore’s clearer impacting that won them the debate.
Year 8 ISDA unfortunately went down opposing the same topic. The main clash came down to the importance of children having the freedom of choice to make money versus the duty to protect kids. Ultimately, the adjudicator decided that safety concerns outweighed Shore’s points in a tough loss. Shoutout to Fred for his effective rebuttal and well-structured speech!!
On a positive note, the Year 9 ISDA team secured a cheeky dub debating the same topic, putting them in good stead for octos qualifications 🥳🥳. Once again, Shore followed a good structure and clearly outlined their ideas but will work on more in-depth discussion of stakeholders for future.
Our Year 10s and Senior teams all negated the topic ‘That the consumption of news on social media has done more harm than good.’
Any doubts created by Year 10’s earlier losses in the season have been thoroughly cast aside by this team’s recent domination. Enjoy your weekly dose of Will Nicholas’ titillating commentary (I’m not lazy; I’m actually just leveraging metatextual intrusions to create a superb meta-fictive voice):
“Year 10 continued their week-on-week improvement with a fourth consecutive victory and season-best performance which stunned a hitherto undefeated Cranbrook side. Determined to remind their opponents that they would have to fight for a place at the top of the table, Jayden Pan delivered his speech like a well-oiled machine. His faultless structure and meticulous mechanisation brought Shore’s case roaring to life and forced our opponents – the affirmative – onto the defensive. Yukai’s earnest demeanour made him the ideal spokesperson for the vulnerable stakeholders whom Shore ruthlessly leveraged in the insatiable campaign for victory.”
An exuberant Year 10 team. Oh no…Dan Kang’s started a trend with his cringey finger guns.
As usual, we kept our foot pressed firmly on the opposition’s throat. Kevin’s speech was like a rogue machine gun which sprayed bullets wildly in every direction. It eventually hit all its targets, and in the end was also about as persuasive as a machine gun: very.
As always, a huge thanks to Will for his excellent write-up of the debate, showcasing his effortless prowess in English (😩😩 pls write my Mod C/Lit Worlds for me). The war motif and similes were pure 🤤.
Will Nicholas cooking up some heat.
Negating the same motion as Year 10, the Senior Bs ran a strong case about the need for social media to provide news from a variety of different perspectives as well as successfully proving that most Australians had a degree of media literacy in screening the news they received. Shoutout to Gus Leslie for cleverly illustrating the real harms and benefits of the debate in a concrete way. Ms Wolsely was also very pleased with Angus’ disparagement of Murdoch media.
The indifferent Senior Bs after a breezy W (Rizzy Ramon has yet to break his mewing streak)
As I write this report on a train to Central on yet another exhausting Sunday, I’m an utter wreck of tears as I relive Friday night. Your Senior As have finally let a debate slip past their goalposts. Estimated recovery time? Perhaps a week if I’m lucky. All members, from Daddy Liu at first, Deek at second, myself at third and Kax at fourth put up a valiant fight defending the prevalence of news on social media. Despite a heartbreaking loss, congrats to D-LIUUUU for consistently stepping up to the plate as a Year 11 student and doing an excellent job speaking out of position at first!
As I look out at the dreary morning sky and rain-stained windowpanes of my train while Carly Rae Jepsen’s seminal composition “Call Me Maybe” blasts from my airpods, my emotions are perhaps more intense than the post-breakup grief I’m all too familiar with (just joking – I’ve never met the precondition for breakups 😔)
Hours before disaster…The blissfully happy Senior As and Bs in a joint training.
But the sun is coming out lad’s. At the horizon of every heartbreaking loss lies the infinitude of glorious possibilities. Pain and anger. Those are what shape victors. Amidst the depths of a stinging loss, you can bet that Shore will rise again from the ashes, reborn as a blazing phoenix.
Next week, Shore faces St Catherines at Shore. It’s our last home debate, and for most teams the decisive debate for out-round qualifications. From the words of our cheer captain Hamish Longstaff: “Pressure makes diamonds.” I wish all debaters the best of luck. Go forth and get those dubs.