Hey fellas
I'm studying to become a teacher, and an assingment i have right now is to design a lesson about socialism vs capitalism. I myself am very anti capitalist, but as a teacher i have to remain neutral during the lesson itself (which of course doesn't mean I can't speak about the clear faults in capitalism).
I was just thinking about interactive (and maybe playfull) ways to teach about socialism and capitalism to students, and hoping you bears had some creative ideas :). It is important I let the students draw their own conclusions, and that they don't follow my line of thinking. In other words, i'm not going to indoctrinate them.
If there is anything that pops into your mind, let me know!
Thanks in advance!
Edit: spoke to my tutor, he said I don't need to remain neutral. So it's just about teaching 16 year olds about socialism in a creative way. Thanks again!
I recently sat in on a socialism v capitalism class and it was horrible. I’ll lay out the problems with it that I remember having:
The dude taught the horseshoe theory. So, don’t do that, and maybe also teach how the horseshoe theory is bullshit.
He taught Marx as being opposed to figures like Adam Smith and David Ricardo. I think it would be important to note how much Marx actually drew from Smith and Ricardo, and viewed himself as expanding upon and progressing their theory, despite noting that they were bourgeois economists.
He taught that socialism is “authoritarian,” using as evidence of course the idea of “dictatorship of the proletariat.” I think it would be important to note that Marxists would consider current western governments as dictatorships of the bourgeoisie. And also dispel this notion of socialism as necessarily authoritarian by noting libertarian socialist currents and also noting that anarchists often call themselves socialists. Further I think it’s important to tell them that socialism is not a certain type of government but a relation to the means of production.
Yeah that's my struggle too. There's no way I can remain neutral on a topic like this, but I have to at least pretend I am. The great irony is that the class I'm expected to teach is moral philosophy too, and capitalism is in no way morally defensible.
Edit: just spoke to my tutor. I don't need to be all neutral, especially when pointing out the faults in capitalism. Now it's just searching for interactive and creative ways to teach students about it.
Hey, I'm a teacher also!
Your goal here is too vague. Start with what exactly you want students to know or be able to do by the end of the lesson and then plan how to get them there.
Like what exactly do you want them to know about socialism or capitalism by the time you're done?
Also, neutrality is massively overrated. You can design a lesson to lead students in whatever direction you want them to think about without having to say a word of your own opinion. That said, sometimes you need to remain cagey about what you think if you want students to really think for themselves.
I don't know what you're teaching, you're probably designing a lesson about contemporary capitalism vs socialism debate, so this might not be applicable to you.
I have a clear memory of a high school history lesson. We were covering the beginnings of the Cold War, for example what the different factions of the allies wanted post-war Germany to be like.
After reading some text book sections, we were grouped up into two sections and had to pretend we were diplomats (one side American, one side Soviet) negotiating some treaty about post-war Germany or something.
