Don’t argue, Devid’s a winner

IT IS not a wise idea to pick an argument with Devid Kim. The Springvale student won a prestigious debating award this week.
Devid, a Year 9 student at Springvale Secondary College, won a Swannie award presented by the Debaters’ Association of Victoria (DAV).
The DAV’s prestigious debating prize is awarded only to the best debaters in the state, who participate in DAV’s regional interschool debating competitions.
DAV spokesman Chris Hibbard said the award was named after debating pioneer Alan Swanwick.
“The Swannie awards represent a significant achievement and are awarded to students who are at the peak of their year level,” Mr Hibbard said.
“This (interschool DAV) is the largest English-speaking debating tournament in the world, and to be selected as one of the best you need to have a high level of confidence, logical reasoning and ability to think on your feet.”
The winners were chosen by the adjudicators who judge the school debates, and are based on the student’s performance in the five rounds of competition.
In each debate, students are judged on matter, which is the logic and relevance of an argument; manner, which is the quality of the presentation; and method, which is the structure and responsiveness of an argument.
Springvale Secondary College principal Mark Kosac said the school community was immensely proud of Devid’s achievement.
“Devid’s award follows on in the tradition of quality debaters from Springvale Secondary College”, he said.
“In 2006 another student from our debating program, Christine Pho, won the Swannie award.
“All students can try out for the debating team and we field many teams in the DAV competitions.
“Two Swannie awards in two years is a fantastic result for all the students from the college involved in the debating program.”
Springvale Secondary College’s head of debating, Carol Pratt, said the school had four senior and three junior teams, each with six debaters.
“Our teams won the majority of our debates with one Year 9 team making it all the way through to win the region,” Ms Pratt said.
“They then made it through to the second elimination debate.
“This was the first time we have made it to this level and all members of the college community are very proud of the efforts of all the debaters.”