Twenty Five Classes or Bust: History of Ideas

I had the great pleasure of visiting Mrs. Everdell's 10th grade History of Ideas course on Wednesday.  The course is designed to introduce Gunston students to the key intellectual movements and concepts that inform our personal, national, and global worldviews.  I happened to be visiting on a day when the class was wrapping up their discussion on Taoism, and beginning a unit on Confucianism. 

Using Huston Smith's The World Religions text, Mrs. Everdell guided the students through an introduction to the concept of "The Deliberate Tradition": the five precepts that guide Confucian philosophy.  Throughout, the discussion was focused on the issues of morality, conduct, and virtue.  At the end of the lesson, in addition to assigning additional reading, Mrs. Everdell gave her students a unique homework assignment related to Confucian principles: she asked them to spend an entire day acting as polite as humanly possible.  She is truly a master teacher.