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Philosophical Discussions in Psychology
Following the Advanced Placement test last week, we killed some time with the fewer students who were in the room, others being away for various AP tests, with a movie. But this week, I felt the need to make class more meaningful. Fortunately two students had hung out after school on Wednesday, chatting with me about the probability of extraterrestrial intelligent life, the advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence, and the limits of human comprehension of the unknown.
Based on that conversation, I looked at Quora and pulled six questions that I thought my high school seniors could reasonably and intelligently discuss without research or preparation:
- Does your dog try to comfort you when you are upset?
- What is the single best lesson your parents have taught you?
- What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?
- What is the most frustrating thing about being a man?
- What is the most frustrating thing about being a woman?
- What are the impacts of us finding out that we’re not the only intelligent life in the universe?
- What is the hardest thing you have gone through in life, and how did you get past it?
When students came in, I told them that it’d be a screen-less day and that, while I took attendance, they had a few minutes to send a last text or email, Snap something, or check Twitter for what Kim Kardashian had for lunch. Then I showed the questions; told them to choose one that seemed most interesting; and then they partnered up for two-minutes to brainstorm answers and follow-up questions.
And then we started with the first question, and it was just a free-flowing, wide-ranging discussion. I tried to get them to self-moderate and not raise their hands; I tried to get them to talk to each other and not just direct their comments to me (unfortunately 12 years of training is hard to decondition.)
I was really glad with how the activity went. They really got into it; some questions more than others, and some kids more than others. But, I think everyone got something out of the day. They talked right up to the bell in both class periods, and with a certain energy they wanted to know what we’re going to do next…