Over the course of the COVID-19 lockdown physical debating events may have been cancelled, but two King’s debaters have still been busy.

In response to most local secondary school debating competitions being put on hiatus, the New Zealand Schools Debating Council organised the National Aotearoa Online Schools Debating Competition (AOSD), be hosted using Zoom. With 196 teams and approximately 700 students participating across four divisions, AOSD immediately became one of the largest secondary school debating competitions to be held in New Zealand.

Two teams with members from King’s participated. Both participated in the 57 team Premier Division of AOSD.

Firstly, Ben Hawke participated in a team with Angela Fu (Columba College), Ella Taylor (Nelson College for Girls) and Ronan Thompson (Nelson College). This team won 2 out of 5 of their debates in the preliminary rounds of the competition, beating teams from Kristin School and St Hilda’s Collegiate School.

Secondly, Samuel Blackwood participated in a team with Abby Bowmar (Columba College) and Liam Barnes (James Hargest College). This team won 4 out of 5 of their debates in the preliminary rounds, beating teams from King’s College, Scots College, Christ’s College and Onslow College, so progressed as the 5th ranked team out of 16 to the knockout rounds. From there, they beat out teams with speakers from St Andrew’s College, Auckland Grammar School, St Cuthbert’s College and St Kentigern College to progress to the grand final of AOSD. Against them in the grand final was Premier White, a mixed school team of speakers also from Otago/Southland.

In a 6-1 decision by a panel of seven judges, the team of Samuel, Abby and Liam prevailed, successfully affirming the motion that “This house regrets the glorification of hard work”. They argued not that hard work is bad, but rather that its glorification as a primary source of happiness frequently causes people to act in ways detrimental to their broader wellbeing. In the absence of this glorification, they contended, people would predominantly continue to work hard to pursue their goals, but would no longer work hard merely for the sake of working hard.