TOK:
Ethics, Knowledge, Freedom and Happiness
Activity 1:
Define the concepts of trigger warnings, microaggressions and safe spaces
Activity 2:
Categorize the statements below: Do you “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree” or “Strongly
Disagree.”
1. Schools should be places where students are exposed to many viewpoints, even if some
groups or individuals might find them offensive.
2. Classrooms should be places where all students should have the freedom to share their
opinions.
3. Classrooms should be places where all teachers should have the freedom to share their
opinions.
4. Teachers should warn middle and high school students about sensitive content in the
books they will read for school.
5. Students should be allowed to opt out of curriculum they disagree with or find
offensive.
6. Professors should warn college and university students about sensitive content in
literature.
7. Outright harassment and subtle norms steeped in racism, sexism and homophobia are
real in many classrooms and schools.
8. Students going to college should expect to be safe from hurtful language and ideas.
9. Colleges should be places where uncomfortable ideas can be debated openly.
10. A college or university should cancel a speaker a majority of students object to.
11. All speech should be free, including speech we find offensive.
12. Free speech is not truly available to all, especially members of marginalized groups, so
additional protections for them are needed.
13. Calling for safer academic environments is infantilizing to students.
14. Colleges and universities should have speech codes to protect students from
intentionally hurtful language.
15. Students today expect to be coddled, not challenged.
16. Concepts like “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” on campus are antithetical to
academic freedom.
17. Students are not avoiding or silencing difficult conversations by asking for trigger
warnings and safe spaces. Instead, they are trying to learn how to face them in ways
that are both academically rigorous and sensitive to the needs of everyone in the room.
Activity 3:
Discuss the outcome with at least two classmates for about 10-15 minutes. You are, of course,
allowed to change your mind during the discussion in regards to your position on some
statement. You do not need to hold your position no matter what, but you should also
challenge each other to give solid, justified arguments.
Activity 4:
Read the short responses from six experts in this November 2015 Room for Debate forum,
When a Generation Becomes Less Tolerant of Free Speech.
[Link]
tolerant-of-free-speech
Consider:
● Which of the six responses challenged your thinking most? Why?
● With which do you most agree in the end?
● What personal experiences have you had that have influenced and informed your
opinions on these subjects?
● In what circumstances do you learn best? How, if at all, does this debate relate to that
for you?
The previous was taken from: [Link]
microaggressions-teaching-questions-of-freedom-of-speech-on-campus/
Increasingly, students in university can claim they should be excused from certain lectures or
topics because these are against their sensibilities. What is at stake in these conversations
about safe spaces, microaggressions and trigger warnings, is the balance between equality,
happiness and freedom (of speech). Knowledge, its production, its transmission and its inherent
duties and responsibilities, is at the very heart of this search for balance.
Next week, we will debate the need for safe spaces and trigger warnings and their impact on
what can be discussed in universities and schools. The statement to be debated is: Persepolis or
fail.
The ‘Real-Life Situation’ we use to start this debate is a post by an IB teacher in Canada whose
student does not want to read Persepolis:
Activity 5:
Read the post by the IB teacher on the next page.
Hello All,
My student thinks Persepolis (Complete Works) should not be taught because it is
anti-Islamic.
I enjoyed it, and I think the protagonist is really plucky. The Atlantic had a good article
about why this book should be taught. I understand the book was banned, then unbanned in
Chicago, and that high school teachers can do it after training of some sort. It has great
reviews, generally, for a graphic novel and movie.
I said the characters who are lovely and Muslims--intellectuals, pilots, journalists,
everymen--and how do they perpetuate a negative image of Islam? She said that Satrapi is
not a Muslim--maybe, but almost every other innocent was in the novel. Yet, there is no
question that extreme images of Islam are everywhere, and her point is that this book
continues to feed that stereotype.
I said, what if a Mullah talked to the class about Islam before we studied it? Still, a no.
Her position is that kids who do not have a real understanding of Islam should not be studying
the book. I mentioned how Brunei is a theocracy which has fairly positive press while Iran is a
theocracy which got some poor press since the 70's. I think part of her irritation is theocracy.
She said there is nothing I could do to research the text/Iran/Islam more than we did,
nor to make any more of the connections we made to the obvious foibles of western
societies.
She is young and offended and cannot really put her finger on why, nor defend her
position well--and it doesn't mean she is wrong.
I remember teachers who had us read texts that had clear anti-semitism in them
without ever mentioning that elephant in the room; and that used to bother me and my
family a lot. I think of Gatsby.
I am thinking of nixing the text or doing it differently.
Activity 6:
Split up into three groups and inform me of the groups next lesson.
Activity 7 (HW):
In order to prepare for this debate (both affirmative and negative) and come to a variety of
positions, do the following:
● Think about the different schools within the field of ethics and consider how proponents
of these schools would approach the topic (use your posters).
● Read the chapter “Ethics” in the TOK book (chapter 17).
● Read pp. 554-556 and understand ‘cultures’ also on a level of different social groups within a
society.
● Read pp. 563 - 565 (Do not need to do the activity)
● Read pp. 578 (“Beyond dogmatism and relativism”) - 584
Approach this as group work, so think about the manner in which you assign roles, divide
work and exchange information so as to be most efficient and effective.
