Teaching teens what they really want to know
 

So I have a great group of seniors for 45 min a week I have to kill. (Yeah, my bad, that's what I get for trying to write during the passing period...I guess I hijacked my own thread)

Anyways, I'll try to do better:

Drawing upon all your past experiences and knowledge, how would you answer the following questions to teens?

How can I mess with "The Man"

What facts can I know to seem smarter than I really am

How can I cook on the cheap (also, how can I cook a good dinner for a date cheaply)

How do I go about overthrowing the government

Thank you, you are all winners

Uhhh... apologies for being crude, but... ummm... I think they want to know how to get pussy.

Did anyone else think he was planning on killing a group of old people?

Teach them media awareness. Challenge them to think about the information they consume.

You like that rapper who talks about resisting the man and fighting the power? Who signs his checks? Why do you think his billion-dollar record label releases his music? Does that change the way you think about his message?

Watch the first 10 minutes of the news tonight. Were the things they talked about the most important things happening in the world? If not, why do you think they chose to talk about them? Why did they choose not to talk about the more important things?

List the web sites you visit regularly. How much influence do they have on the way you think about issues that are important to you? Did the people you interact with online tend to agree with the opinions you already hold, or challenge them? Why do you think that is?

Is there anything you thought about today that bothered you? What can you do about it?

(That sort of thing... no right or wrong answers, just get them thinking about it. And it's not about "the big evil companies have all the money" either, although that might be part of it.)

An insurgency class would be fun. You could do worse than start by reading Heinlien's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Make them develop a school wide insurgency without getting caught. You can ask few teachers to be "the government". If the students can get 50% of the students as members of the insurgency they win.

Obviously the structure would need to be developed, but it could be a good exercise in leadership, marketing and of course overthrowing the government.

Even the girls?

Yes.

Nah, I know for a fact he wouldn't be doing that. ;)

My suggestion is to teach them practical and realistic examples of taking personal responsibility. You can find examples all of the place of people obviously playing the game. A neat twist would be to show how A blames B and B blames A. You can include the govt (as in the examples from this week), the media, popular culture and the litigators. We don't need any more people growing up being like that. Question authority but don't play the blame game.

Yup, me too. I had to read it like 3 times and every time I read the same thing.

Are you in the group?

More than you think.

Seniors are most open to experimentation. I did a study back when I was 13.

Its the MTV generation. Anything is open game.