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.