Those of you who know John Zhao well, know he’s never short of something to say. That was, until the recent Otago Southland debating championships when, after three debates on the trot, he temporarily lost the ability to speak. Such is the challenge of this competition.
Over the weekend, three McGlashan Teams debated in the competition, including a raw and inexperienced Year 11 team. Those who have not debated much before going into the competition, intellectually flabby and unfit, and emerge, unbroken with logic, reason and structure fit and rippling. This was certainly the case for the B and C teams, who picked up a few wins here and there and a whole bunch of new skills and knowledge.
The A team went some way further. This impressive group of McGlashan Men - Archie Dunn, Caleb Oakley and Ali Dohan came through the round-robin impressively, picking up a good number of wins. For the first year in some time, they made the semi-finals. This debate ended in a split decision - two of the judges thought we’d won, three that we’d lost. So close.
And such a fine effort from strong debaters, resulting in Caleb Oakley being selected for the Regional Team and Archie Dunn for the Development Team. Impressive achievements both from a top team of top debaters. So, if all this sounds like it could be your kind of thing - come to Room 203 on Tuesday lunchtimes and learn a bit more about it.
Open Event Registration - Interested in enrolling?
Employment opportunities - click if you're interested in working at McGlashan.