Anyone have teaching inspiration?

[liv]

I want to do a sort of moral maze type discussion with my class next week. Does anyone have any suggestions for scenarios that could get 12-year-olds thinking about moral dilemmas? A mixture of secular ones and religious ones is probably good, so I welcome suggestions from people who aren't Jewish.

Comments

[liv]

Mm, interesting suggestion, but that isn't quite the sort of thing I was thinking of. I was after more individual morality than political questions, especially since there is a really wide range of awareness of politics, particularly US politics.

[shevek.livejournal.com]

Can you use Plato's Republic? That starts with a very well presented set of individual morality questions, if the form is appropriate.

[liv]

That's certainly an option. I would have adapt some of them a bit to a modern setting, but you're right, that's exactly the sort of setup that is designed to get people thinking about moral questions. Thanks.

[shevek.livejournal.com]

They're relatively simple and timeless though.

Dare I assume that you have read Sophie's World?

*thinks* I must know more like this.

You could explain the different types of reasoning, if you're willing to go into theory of knowledge territory - Plato works by Occam's Razor - pick the simplest argument which satisfies the facts, and then use counterexample. Talmud works in the opposite manner: Anything which isn't banned is permitted. Therefore, pick the most complex argument which is permitted by the text, and that circumscribes banned practise. Anything remaining is allowed.

Um.

heh. Not useful, but fun.

"But what if his slave normally slept under the bed?" - Succot