The Purpose of Schools; The Purpose of Government

We started class today by talking about Sugata Mitra's upcoming presentation and discussing two questions:

What is the purpose of school?

If you could create an ideal class, what would it look like?

The discussion about the purpose of school -- and how schools could be different or better -- was fantastic. Here were some of the highlights:

Gabriel: If we're supposed to be focused on living in the present, then why do we spend so much time in school talking about the past and the future?

Channing: I feel like almost all of the classes I've ever taken were taught the same way. Are we not creative enough to think of other ideas, or are we scared of changing things?

Vaya: We should have a "why wall", where people could write all their questions. For example, I've always wondered why the sun is called the sun, and why trees are called trees. [Vaya: Leonardo da Vinci would love this idea!]

Next we discussed the definition of government and talked about the kinds of rules that governments create. The slide show I used to guide the discussion is here: The Role of Government.

What do you think: should people who live in the city of Charlottesville be allowed to raise chickens in their backyard?

And more importantly, should Randolph, Phineas, and Mr. Richmond be allowed to dye their hair any color they please?

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Finally, here's a film produced by Core 4 China.

Loving the fun beat, and loving the great details about ancient Chinese ideas and leaders!