I’ve been teaching Primary Ethics for 5 school terms now (a term is a quarter year) since I began in April last year. In 2017 I taught the Year 4 class. I’d hoped to move to Year 5 in 2018 so that I could have many of the same children, but due to a wave of teacher retirements I was assigned Year 6 at the beginning of this year.
Year 6 is the oldest kids at the primary school, so the most mature, around 11 years old. As one would expect, they generally have better concentration skills and are more interested in discussing the sorts of topics that we teach in the classes. So it’s been pretty good for the past two terms.
Topics we’ve discussed so far this year are:
- What makes a fair society? What makes an unfair society?
- What are human rights? Where do they come from? Should animals have rights too?
- Fatalism: Is the future predestined, no matter what we choose to do?
- Does it matter what other people believe? Should we respect other people’s beliefs, even if we don’t agree with them, or if they are harmful?
- Determinism: Do we have free will, or are our choices determined by our circumstances? And if our choices are determined, are we responsible for our actions?
Some of it is pretty heavy stuff for kids this age, but the curriculum is designed to introduce the topics in ways they can understand, and they’ve been enjoying it.
Then yesterday I got an email from one of the other Ethics teachers (the Year 2 teacher), who has a son in Year 4, and who took my class for me a few weeks ago when I was holidaying in Tanzania:
David I keep meaning to tell you that my son (Year 4) when I told him I was taking your Year 6 class said “Mr Morgan’s class? Everyone wants him he’s the best Ethics teacher”.
Needless to say: wow, cool! Clearly the Year 6 kids have been telling everyone how much they enjoy their classes with me. So I’m pretty chuffed!
Tags: ethics
That’s wonderful! So happy for you!
:-)
That’s nice feedback.
Those are some tough issues. Dealing reasonably with a question like “Should we respect other people’s beliefs, even if we don’t agree with them, or if they are harmful?” … that would be a tough question for very thoughtful adults (I don’t think I have a good answer for it — I can make arguments and then make counter arguments, so I don’t even agree with myself; on the other hand, perhaps I don’t quite count as thoughtful either).