“Who determines what is right from wrong?” was scrawled across the front white board. Two dozen students sat in desks in a circle sipping their scalding hot chocolate. These teenagers must have be bored out of their minds—thinking about the game, what’s happening this weekend, gossip—anything other than the question, right? But those were the last things on their minds. These kids were contemplating the query. They were philosophizing. 
The students were practicing for Long Island’s first-ever High School Ethics Bowl on Saturday, April 10 at Bethpage High School, which is organized with the help of The Squire Family Foundation. The event gives students the chance to explore the difficult, controversial issues facing the world today. Sixteen schools are attending the premier event.
“Most people don’t know how philosophy benefits them,” said Wendy Way, Bethpage’s philosophy teacher and ethics bowl organizer. “It leads to thinking clearly, owning your beliefs and opinions, and engaging in purposeful dialogue. In our world of technology, it seems we have lost our ability to socialize.”
advertisement
Philosophy is helping solve that problem. “Philosophy teaches you to use the skill of critical thinking,” she said. “Not to just passively accept what people tell you, but to question things.”
In an ethics bowl, several hypothetical cases are provided for the competing teams. Each case deals with a current moral issue, like the use of Ritalin on children with ADHD, for example. The teams must analyze these cases and present commentary on the matter. But it should not mistaken for a debate. Opposing teams can agree on an issue, but the team that uses better reasoning, evidence, and logic wins the round.
Simple, right? Well, not exactly. These competitions are usually reserved for college students, although academia is beginning to realize that philosophy is no longer a class best reserved for college.
“I think that children are natural philosophers,” said Marietta McCarty, assistant professor of Philosophy at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Va., and author of “Little Big Minds,” a book about teaching philosophy to children. “They have the ability to expand their mind and heart,” said McCarty, who visited students from kindergarten to eighth grade, and shared philosophy with her young, eager students.
“Studying philosophy as a child is an opportunity many people miss out,” she said. “It’s very hard to re-enter the world of ideas.”
In other words, Socrates, Nietzsche and Kant may not be over a young person’s head, despite misconceptions, McCarty said. “It’s easier for [children] to learn than adults. I think it’s because they don’t have any baggage, or clutter, and they are able to think clearly and get to the heart of the matter.”
Roberta Israeloff, organizer and co-founder of the Squire Family Foundation, saw the potential as well and created the organization four years ago in order to advance philosophy to elementary and secondary schools.
“Philosophy is the only major discipline not taught in American schools. It’s taught in Australia, Western Europe and in some parts of Canada,” said Israeloff, a 30-year English teacher who teamed up with an old Syosset friend, attorney, and philosopher, Gary Squire. She got the idea when she attended an intercollegiate ethics bowl.
“I was so impressed with the students, and intrigued with how it works. I thought it would be interesting to bring it to high school students,” Israeloff said. “The ethics bowl also gets a lot of people involved, from parents, teachers, coaches.”
“It draws its judges from the community, like local politicians and congressmen,” she said. People who deal with ethical decision making everyday. The foundation is working with the American Philosophical Association to connect philosophy teachers nationwide.
Locally, the competition may be young, but it is not to be underestimated. The reigning Most Philosophical Student in America is from Bethpage. Bert Geng, a senior, wrote his winning essay on the nature of greed versus giving.
“Greed is a tsunami that engulfs all but those with the purest of souls and the noblest of resolve,” he wrote. ”In a society plagued by avarice, is there any wonder that the most notable people in history are often those who stole selfishly from the world? Greed is that insatiable hunger that devours all but leaves little. No matter how much one may give to this ravenous leviathan, the desire for more will never disappear, ultimately consuming any acts of selflessness and leaving behind great scars upon the world.”
By Annie Bernberg
Annie Bernberg is president of the Bethpage High School Philosophy Club
