CELEBRATING THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE CLASS OF ETHICS

The 20th of November was the Day of Philosophy, according to the UNESCO calendar. We wanted to celebrate it properly in our school, and did so having a special activity with 4th year of ESO in its Bilingual modality (CLIL). The pupils were split into two groups that started working by themselves in turns of half an hour. One of them reflected about what makes something or somebody deserve being an ethical subject (that is, is there anything apart from human beings to be taken into account if we want to be good people?). Meanwhile, the other group was debating the moral issue of whether animals should be treated (almost) like people through a prickly case: eating meat. We love our cats, dogs, even our parakeets. Then, do we have a moral justification to eat rabbits, pigs or chickens, even if they are really similar to our pets?  If so, why?

We all have so much to thank to Nicky, the English teacher and assistant, who played the role of Devil’s Advocate willingly, helping Paco, the Ethics teacher, make the pupils understand how deep any kind of daily situation can take us from an ethical point of view.