Fiction as a Vehicle for Considering Ethical Issues in Education

Catalog description

Do you like to read and discuss fiction? Are you interested in discussing ethical issues in education? You can combine these things in this course, whose readings include fiction and poetry as well as philosophy and social science. Topics include: What are appropriate aims and methods for different types of education? What are appropriate student-teacher relationships? How should selective schools select students? How much, if at all, should schools concern themselves with students’ and teachers’ non-academic lives? How should schools deal with politically charged topics like race and gender and with current controversies? How have the Covid pandemic and its aftermath affected education? What special issues are involved in online teaching? In order to include participants with varied backgrounds, this course has no prerequisites.