session 2 readings (and debate questions), 3/6

[Anonymous]

According to Confucius' idea, a good family is the one in which sons obey father, wife obeys husband. A woman should be first loyal to her father, then to her husband and finally to her sons. A woman is bound to be loyal to all males in the family, but men are not obligated to be loyal to the females. This family relationship hierarchy reveals men's dominant social status in the ancient China. An emperor is proud of having many concubines. On the other hand, if a concubine is not loyal to the emperor, she could be sentenced to death. Women had low social status and their fate depended on men. My female students would appreciate their equal opportunities and freedom today.
edited by Lin ZD on 6/15/2017

[Anonymous]

I am also thinking of having them work on a research paper after we are done with the Socratic seminar. I have been pushing for more writing practice in my history class and this would be a great opportunity to have students apply all they have learned on paper.

[Anonymous]

The method of getting students into the character is really fun. I've done one or two lessons where students have to "be in the moment", but this requires more than I have done. I would like to do this with several units - but the meeting of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Dao would be really meaningful. They often just skim over this section, "yeah, that's on the other side of the world" type of attitude. Putting them in the groups (and offering a reward) might generate more interest and would definitely challenge me to come up with questioning that would guide them, rather than tell them.

[Anonymous]

Confucians! You would do nothing? Your filial piety will be the collapse of society! What about your duty to the state, to order, to the continuance of society. We must always act when we see selfish, immoral behaviors that bring chaos into our lives. What if your father brought your own family harm? Would your filial piety continue? He is disrupting the safety of your family. He must suffer the consequences and you do wrong by the rest of your family members not to turn him in. You are a stain on society.

[Anonymous]

The four school of thoughts presented an interesting way to look at the dominant cultural influences in China. Students can be put into teams and they can study about their philosophy and then present what they learned and know in a powerpoint type of presentations so that their classmates can learned more about each school of thoughts. Questions can be asked after the presentations to encourage further research.

[Anonymous]

Now that our seminars are over, I've been reflecting on the time we spent together, and this session stands out in particular. In my previous post I mentioned how it was nice to see a debate through the lens of a student and I just want to revisit this and say that I can definitely see myself using a debate next year in both my AP biology and chemistry classes (I am a second year teacher and have never conducted a debate in class before). I have been thinking about how by asking students to thoroughly understand and defend one point of view, you are kind of tricking them into thoroughly understand the other points of view as well so that they can defend their assigned point of view. I realized that after I was done wearing my legalist hat, I was able to step back and think about which school of thought I personally agreed with more and which I would have liked to have been a part of and why. This was a great exercise.

[Anonymous]

I was assigned to the school of Mo. I have never studied or was curious about Chinese philosophy, so researching the school of Mo and other schools of philosophical thought was very difficult to me. The only exposure to Chinese philosophy is whatever the Wu Tang Clan rapped about in their albums. While I was researching, the most interesting bit of information I came across was the idea of unconditional love vs indiscriminate love. The Mohists believed that everyone should love everyone the same while the Confucians believed that although love should be everywhere, some people should be loved more than others, meaning that a child should love his or her parents more than a stranger. It was interesting to me because I don't particularly enjoy getting lost in philosophical thought. I am a very practical person, even in my thoughts, so I would have never in my life come across this idea if I had not been assigned the school of Mo, so thanks to this class!

[Anonymous]

Although I was unable to attend this seminar, I teach Confucius in my 7th grade class and am always surprised how the students react to his teachings, especially the boys. We live in such a different society than that of Confucius and the way he felt society should be organized. The lack of respect today for hierarchy is such a great topic to discuss in class. Many students today have this "entitlement" that would never exist where Confucius ideas are still valued today.

[Anonymous]

One of the things I took away from Professor Dube’s presentation was the idea of the “Mandate of Heaven,” in which Heaven bestows the divine right of ruling to those who were morally worthy. Chinese history has judged its rulers through this lens. For example, the fall of The Shang Dynasty was considered good and necessary because Emperor Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty, was a tyrant and had lost the “Mandate of Heaven.” What I did not understand that night was the impact of Daoism on this idea. Lao Zi expressed his idea of the unity of Heaven and humans in the Dao De Jing : “Man follows the Earth, the Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Dao, and the Dao follows what is natural.” This would have been a powerful tool in our class debate, since the idea of the Dao was well-established by the “warring states period” and had a lot of credibility and cachet.

[Anonymous]

This session was one of my favorites because it was one of the moments we were able to discuss the content in groups. I have always struggled with understanding the different religious philosophies and I left this meeting understanding them on a deeper level. I have teach 6th and 7th grade social studies and this session helped me contextualize and understand the content.

[Anonymous]

As I reflect on this lecture and the structure of the debate I realize how useful this could be in a World History class. The ability for several teachers to read the most basic principles of a political/religious philosophy and debate it could easily be replicated within two class periods. I can imaginge a classroom full of students engaging in a spirited debate that would ultimately lead to a finer understanding Mohism, Legalism, Confucianism and the like. Very powerful class.

[Anonymous]

As a legalist the answer is straight forward, pops would be tried and sentenced fully. Emotions are taken out of the equation and he must be dealt with harshly. I enjoyed this part of the class as it was very interactive and was a model that can easily be adapted into any classroom, whether on this topic or a combination of this topic with other areas of the world.

[Anonymous]

*Reading Session 2
I really enjoyed this debate. I learned more about each philosophy. Furthermore I enjoyed learning more about the Mohists. I like how the Mohists believed in “universal love” and that they wanted people to regard others as their own- Instead of working only towards your own family’s benefit. This way they promote what is beneficial for everyone.

[Anonymous]

As a Daoist I do and say nothing because nature and the natural flow of life will be the way of things.

[Anonymous]

My students loved learning about Confucianism and it fits right in with the great need to teach respect to our students in todsy's society.

[Author]

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