10-30-2023, 12:01 AM
(This post was last modified: 10-31-2023, 04:38 PM by Pranavi Senthil.)
Session 4: Taking Sides & Finding Balance: China's One Child Policy & Three Ethical Perspectives Introduction
Focus Question: What ethical and moral principles inform our actions? How are these perspectives reflected in our laws? What are the trade-offs in the One Child Policy?
This was the session I was most excited about as it gave us the opportunity to present an alternate, more international perspective to the class. We started off with a discussion of the Trolley Case. Since the TV screen did not work, Julianna showed everyone a picture of the trolley case one by one. We asked the class what they would do in that scenario. When we took a vote to gauge what the students thought, most students said that they would not sacrifice the life of the stranger as that was manslaughter and punishable by law. After this, we introduced the Three Ethical Perspectives and explained the differences between the three. We had a new student (Student A) who hadn't attended our previous classes today and he shared his views about how he thought it was better if the observer did not intervene.
After this, we discussed the Simon Holmes case to further the understanding of the three ethical perspectives. Most students agreed that this was an example of utilitarianism and that this would be a case of manslaughter. We did a vote to see what the students saw to increase participation because we felt that the session was stalling a little bit. Finally, we introduced China's One Child Policy to the class. Student A was extremely interested in this and asked us a lot of follow-up questions to learn more about the topic. We explained the reasoning behind the policy and most students seemed to agree that this was a case of utilitarian thinking as well. Student B asked us what the consequences were and we explained the female infanticide, the 4-2-1 problem, and the decrease in the enrollment in the military. In my opinion, the most challenging part of the class was making the students understand the differences between political structures in the West which focus on civil liberties and freedoms, and the East which focuses on the rights of a group as a whole. Furthermore, we made sure to incorporate the continuum which showed the spectrum between individual and state, justice and mercy, and freedom and loyalty to highlight the different political regimes across the world.
We had come prepared to execute this session really well and Student A's follow-up questions and engagement really directed the class forward. We understood that participating in class may be intimidating for some students so we did a lot of group votes to understand what the students felt and have them participate in a less intimidating way. Overall, the students were more engaged than before and we felt that this session offered an alternate perspective to the students.
Focus Question: What ethical and moral principles inform our actions? How are these perspectives reflected in our laws? What are the trade-offs in the One Child Policy?
This was the session I was most excited about as it gave us the opportunity to present an alternate, more international perspective to the class. We started off with a discussion of the Trolley Case. Since the TV screen did not work, Julianna showed everyone a picture of the trolley case one by one. We asked the class what they would do in that scenario. When we took a vote to gauge what the students thought, most students said that they would not sacrifice the life of the stranger as that was manslaughter and punishable by law. After this, we introduced the Three Ethical Perspectives and explained the differences between the three. We had a new student (Student A) who hadn't attended our previous classes today and he shared his views about how he thought it was better if the observer did not intervene.
After this, we discussed the Simon Holmes case to further the understanding of the three ethical perspectives. Most students agreed that this was an example of utilitarianism and that this would be a case of manslaughter. We did a vote to see what the students saw to increase participation because we felt that the session was stalling a little bit. Finally, we introduced China's One Child Policy to the class. Student A was extremely interested in this and asked us a lot of follow-up questions to learn more about the topic. We explained the reasoning behind the policy and most students seemed to agree that this was a case of utilitarian thinking as well. Student B asked us what the consequences were and we explained the female infanticide, the 4-2-1 problem, and the decrease in the enrollment in the military. In my opinion, the most challenging part of the class was making the students understand the differences between political structures in the West which focus on civil liberties and freedoms, and the East which focuses on the rights of a group as a whole. Furthermore, we made sure to incorporate the continuum which showed the spectrum between individual and state, justice and mercy, and freedom and loyalty to highlight the different political regimes across the world.
We had come prepared to execute this session really well and Student A's follow-up questions and engagement really directed the class forward. We understood that participating in class may be intimidating for some students so we did a lot of group votes to understand what the students felt and have them participate in a less intimidating way. Overall, the students were more engaged than before and we felt that this session offered an alternate perspective to the students.