got a call to sub teach 11th grade civics at the high school tommorrow

[kodi]

any topics for the classes you think of interest?

for starters, i plan to ask them "If a dog could talk should it have rights and why or why not?"


then i was going to ask them where rights come from, and take them thru the process of social contracts and their foundations, natural vs social rights, how and from where the value systems that produces rights arises, then end with a discussion on whether it is sentience or its innate potential that is the foundation for rights.

i am trying not to interject a "Creator" in the discussion since it is a public school.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. not only do I think you would be doing the little tax deferments

a great service, I think this would be a great discussion topic here.

[Ellen Forradalom]

2. All that in 40 minutes?

Can you speak at our next DU get-together?

[mistertrickster]

3. Ask how many plan to vote when they turn 18.

Then ask them why they are going to give up the most important right they have--they right that their fore-mothers and fathers fought and sometimes died for.

Ask why politicians should give a crap about them if they aren't going to go through the tiny inconvenience of registering and voting.

Ask if they think that college tuition getting de-funded by gov't and going up at a 20 percent a year clip has anything to do with the fact that 18 to 25 year olds have the lowest voter turn out of any demographic. (When I went to college 25 years ago, it was 350 dollars a semester, now state schools are at least 5 times that, much higher than inflation.)

[mistertrickster]

4. By the way, if a dog could talk, it should have the same rights as a human

because only a human-like intelligence is capable of language.

(The ape studies are crap . . . linguists tear them to pieces.) Any being that could talk, does talk. You can't teach an animal to talk anymore than you can teach a fish to swim . . . it's innate.

[Yupster]

5. If you're a sub, the first rule is...

do no harm.

Don't do anything the regular teacher will have to explain, or have to spend time finishing or fixing.

[Dookus]

6. heheh...

that's a great topic, but might be too deep for one class session, plus it will necessarily lead to a "creator" discussion, at least if you discuss the Declaration of Independence.

I would've loved to have you as a teacher though!

My 11th grade social studies teacher was the best. He was a southerner named Lenwood Peacock, I shit you not, and he was an arch right-wing conservative. But he MADE you challenge him, which is probably why I'm a liberal today. In fact, I think he might've been a closet liberal himself and picked up a good method for teaching us.

He was tough as nails, but in private, one of the nicest men I've ever known.

So if I had a chance, I'd follow his example. Get up there and state something outrageously conservative and make them argue against you.