Plenty to Discuss

I love this curriculum.  I love my classes this year.  We took notes today - which we hardly ever do.  In spite of this, most classes had some really great discussions going on.

We started out by discussing the various ways to view a person.  I stated that there are at least three.  There's the way you view yourself, the way others view you, and the "true view" of you...  We discussed these in depth.  I generally ask the students how many agree with the statement, "I know myself better THAN anybody else knows me.  I know my thoughts and motives.  I'm the only person that's with me 24-7.  I know myself best."  The majority of students agree with this.  Then I ask them, "how many of you know someone who thinks they're really cool - but they're actually not maybe as cool as they think?"

Again, the majority of hands go up.  "Interesting," I say.  "Can you have it both ways?  I mean, you're saying that you know yourself better than anybody else knows you - but you're also saying that you know others better than they know themselves.  Somewhere somebody's mistaken."

It makes for some pretty interesting discussion.

We discuss what makes up a person:

Once again, we had some great discussion.  (Is that all there is?  Is there a such thing as a soul?  Is all of this stuff for real?...)

This is one of my reasons for having the blog...  I'm teaching about Hinduism, but these questions come up naturally.  I want to make sure you know what I'm teaching, and I want you to know the questions that your kid, or nephew, etc... has.

Hinduism teaches that there is a soul.  So we continued talking about the Hindu view, the caste system, and reincarnation:

I was encouraged by the students today.  They were very respectful throughout the lesson.  Obviously, being a public school there are a variety of faiths and ideas that are brought into my classroom.  Throughout the day, students listened appropriately to what others had to say and asked insightful questions.


In order to get the credit for the homework tonight, students are required to discuss this blog post with the adult they read it with.  After you've read and discussed the post, write two complete sentences in response to it.  Then, students, have the adult you discussed the post with sign the paper.  (Make sure your name is on the paper as well.)