Welcome to Philosophy and Ethics. This course was designed to introduce key philosophical and ethical concepts to high school students. We will be reading classical writings from famous thinkers in history, from Plato to Emerson. We will be reading essays for class discussion, writing weekly essays, and viewing a variety of thought-provoking video. Your grades will be based upon class participation and weekly Documentaion of Learning Portfolios.

Class Participation. Effective class participation is crucial to effective learning of philosophy. The concepts are often too difficult to understand without the help provided by hearing what others think. For people to share what they truly think, they have to feel safe from personal attacks and embarrassment. Therefore, the key rule will be that all students must show respect to others in the class. Your class participation grade will be based upon your ability to show others respect and your ability and willingness to speak in class. We will be reading many of the essays out loud in class. Each student will be expected to be apart of that activity.

Documentation of Learning Portfolio. On Friday of each week, students will write an essay about what they learned during the week. Students will then attach all of the writings for that week behind the essay and staple them together with a cover page.

The essay, or DLP narrative, will describe what the student learned that week, that is, what the student found interesting and why, what the student found to be true and why, and/or what the student felt had validated something he had thought previously. Students will be expected to review the class readings, writings and video and quote from each to “prove” they learned what they said they did. The quality of proof and the depth of observation will determine the worth of the essay. The essay and the daily writings will then be evaluated for an overall DLP grade.

Weekly Feedback Surveys. Students will also be expected to complete an online survey each week. The survey will ask the student to evaluate the pace of the class, the challenge of the class, the respect of and to the teacher and the level of respect students are showing each other. The student will also be asked to write a paragraph on what went well in the class that week, including comments on student and teacher respect, and also what could have gone better, including any disrespect shown by students or the teacher. The final section of the survey will ask students to identify other students who inspired them in some way or who did or said something exemplary that week. I will read these comments in class on Monday of the following week but keep the names of the writers anonymous. I will also collate the answers each week and post them on the internet.