10th Grade Philosophy Coffeehouse Tackles Big Ideas

The Blue Room morphed into an Enlightenment-era Philosophy Coffee House for 10th grade students just after Fall Break. Under the tutelage of history teacher Melissa Winder and English teacher Robert Schuster, 10th graders have been considering lots of big questions. For their end-of-semester project, each student took on the assigned persona of a renowned philosopher, writer, scientist, inventor, industrialist, etc. from the Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment or Industrial Revolution periods - students chose from personas including Descartes, Madame de Steal, Caroline Herschel, Vesalius, Mary Wollstonecraft, Dumas, Adam Smith, Rousseau, Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Banneker, and more. Students became experts on their person's ideas and traits and created resumes for their persona and topic outlines to introduce themselves and to talk as their character would about questions such as these: What is human nature? What is the role of government? What is justice? Can science explain everything or are there things that science cannot explain? Does society always benefit from technology? Do the ends justify the means? Who should have power? Who should get to decide things? The 'coffeehouse' began with beverages and sweet treats, with teachers serving as waiters and baristas. Students sat in small groups to host discussions as their personas for thirty minutes; they did this twice in different groups. It proved for stimulating conversations all around and students really got into it and showed off their knowledge.