Issue 10 SJC News 2021

On Wednesday 19 May, Year 10 public speaking students Colby and Jaeger competed in the Victorian Plain English speaking awards (PESA), against a range of students from Years 10 - 12.

Hosted at Sacred Heart College, the format of the event consisted of a 5-6 minute prepared speech on an issue that shows an awareness of a world beyond their immediate environment. The speeches were marked with a bell at five minutes and a final bell at six minutes. Colby delivered a speech on transparency of government and subsequent silencing of whistle-blowers and Jaeger, ambition in world leaders and that very ambition leading to their downfall. Topics from fellow competitors from a range of regional schools included regulation of large pharmaceutical companies, free speech, domestic violence and a range of other important worldly issues and subjects. Following the prepared speech, the second aspect of the competition was the impromptu speech. The impromptu set topic will be broad and will assume knowledge of current social and political issues. The topic given was ‘the pursuit of happiness,’ due to the ambiguity of the prompt, a range of interpretations were put forward by the competitors. 

Jaeger spoke to the old adage ‘money cannot buy you happiness’ and that in the pursuit of happiness one must experience highs and lows to truly find happiness as alluded to in the quote from famous American painter Bob Ross “Gotta have a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come.” On the other hand, Colby provided insight into the futility of the pursuit of happiness speaking to a family who went on holiday to escape from life’s problems and to be happy, only to have the same problems in a different place, he said “happiness cannot buy you that chair, that table or the uniforms on your back!”. 

Other participants combined knowledge of popular culture and personal anecdotes in their address of the topic. Year 12 and 11 students from Geelong College and Oberon College took out the 1^st and 2^nd places respectively, with the adjudicators mentioning the quality of prepared speeches, impromptus and participants our region provided. Colby and I would like to extend a massive thank you to Mr Darley for organising this event for us and for assisting us immeasurably in the formation and editing of our speeches and preparation for the impromptus.