Practical Philosophy, Wednesday

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Ender preferred to keep his classes outside when the weather allowed for it at all. As the temperatures were decent and it didn't look like it was going to rain just yet, he took the class outside to the dorm lawn where he sat down on the ground. "Sit down in a circle, please."

He had a bag of sandwiches and a bag of bottles of water with him, which he put in the middle of the circle.

"Welcome," he said. "My name is Andrew Wiggin. I'm an alumnus of this school; I graduated several years ago." That was all they needed to know, as far as he was concerned. "And you might be wondering what you signed on for."

"While 'philosophy' is in my class's title, we're not here primarily to talk about the philosophers of old or the specifics of particular lines of thought in philosophy. In this class, we try to put our own experiences into a greater perspective through conversation and debate. That means I expect some level of participation from all of you."

This was the part where he smiled, at least a little. "That doesn't mean you always need to speak up about yourself," he said. "No topics are everything to everyone. If that week's subject veers too close to something you want to keep private, be my guest - just try and pitch in when someone else speaks. Ask questions."

"Because that's the point of this class: to ask questions of ourselves and of the people around us. You can even ask questions of me, if you feel the need. And maybe together we can get to the core of our joint and individual experiences." His mouth quirked a bit more. "That doesn't mean we're always going to be lingering on the existential questions - or staring at our belly buttons. It just means we're going to try and dig and come to some understanding about each other, ourselves, and the world."

He picked up a bottle of water. "As for today, let's open a dialogue," he said. "For some of you, this is all new. How is it working for you? Are you elated? Annoyed? Don't want to be here? Achingly happy to be here? And for those of you who aren't - how has the past year treated you? Has there been anything that made you cry or made you think or made you wonder?"

"We can talk about that. Or you can bring up something else you feel is worth questioning. I consider most topics fair game, as long as they're brought up with regard for your fellow students. I can't claim knowledge on most, but I can claim an ability to annoy you with questions about just about anything."

He paused, then nodded at the surly tattooed youth also sitting in the circle. "That's your TA, by the way. His name is Cade."

Comments

Sign In!

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Philosophically.

Re: Sign In!

[pulseof_life]

Paddra Nsu-Yeul

Re: Sign In!

[genesishero]

Evan Sabahnur

Re: Sign In!

[not-called-icky.livejournal.com]

Ichabod Crane

Re: Sign In!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy Li

Listen to the Lecture

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Sorry if you've heard it before; take a sandwich if you have. Or if you're just hungry.

Talk.

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Introductions. Of a sort.

Re: Talk.

[pulseof_life]

"It has been a...," she hesitated, "a year of changes."

Yeul frowned slightly.

"I have learned that there are circumstances where even I am willing to help rather than watch." Mostly when it had come to Sholeh being in pain.

But Sholeh was gone now, so did that knowledge matter? Yeul didn't know.

Re: Talk.

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Ender nodded thoughtfully.

"You didn't think these circumstances existed before?" he asked.

Re: Talk.

[pulseof_life]

"If they did, I was unaware of it," Yeul said, tilting her head slightly. "I did not have friends before coming here. Their pain makes it more difficult to remain on the sidelines, where I should be."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"So it is friendship that determines whether or not you feel you must intervene?" Ender asked.

Re: Talk.

[not-called-icky.livejournal.com]

"My name is Ichabod Crane, and I arrived here two months ago," Ichabod began. "And while it is certainly different than I expected, this island offers more than I would have thought possible. So yes, I believe I do want to be here, which doesn't mean I don't think the contemporary era has a few things to learn from the past as well."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"There's always something." Ender looked vaguely amused. "What things are you thinking of?"

Re: Talk.

[not-called-icky.livejournal.com]

"That not everything needs to be solved by creating a machine with buttons," Ichabod replied. He wasn't sure what to make of his new teacher yet.

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"I'd agree with that entirely, actually," Ender said. "But invention has a habit of running away with us, and humans are stubbornly attached to the idea of progress as a straight line."

Re: Talk.

[genesishero]

"I'm Evan, and it's been... a long year, so far," he settled on, quietly plucking at the grass. He didn't have a dino or a dog with him today - neither cared much for the ferry ride. "There was that thing where people weren't themselves, and I lost a friend, and someone who meant a lot to me left. But I'm... doing okay, I think. I'm getting better at doing okay."

Considering Evan's actual life experience was the sum total of about two and a half years in the real world, that was a bigger deal than it sounded like.

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

Ender smiled a little.

"It's okay if you aren't," he said. "But I'm glad to hear it none the less."

He remembered Evan.

Re: Talk.

[genesishero]

"It's weird," Evan admitted after a moment's thought. "I know I don't have to be, right now. I can be as not okay as I want or need to be. Nobody's really relying on my ability to hold myself together, just so long as I don't completely fall apart. That makes it easier, somehow."

He sounded a bit bewildered by that, but it was true enough. There wasn't any sort of pressure, these days. He knew exactly how catastrophic he could be. He accepted that. And now he was learning how to get on with his life.

Re: Talk.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy had taken this last summer, when she'd been brand new. She liked the idea of taking it again--she felt sometimes like a completely different person than she'd been before.

And this time, she had friends in class, too. Another change.

All of which she figured that Mr. Wiggin (unlike Sam, who didn't seem like he could be a Mr. LaCroix to save his life, she didn't think she could call Mr. Wiggin 'Andrew' without a lot of effort) wanted to hear about. "Well, I'm still here," Kathy said when it was her turn, giving him a little shrug. "And a lot more confident in my ability to stay here than the last time I was in this class. I feel that I haven't changed that much from the girl I was a year ago, but then I look at certain parts of my life and it's so far from who I was that it's just insane or incredible and I'm not sure which."

[Sorry for the late ping. Remicaid!]

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Fandom has a habit of doing that to you," Ender said wryly. "Welcome back, Kathy. Of course, now I have to ask: what did change, to make you more confident?"

Re: Talk.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, surviving a year without losing my mind helps," Kathy said with a small huff of a laugh. "I proved I could do it, which is pretty cool. And I've made some friends, kinda, and..." She licked her lips, a little nervous. "Uhh, and picked up some new abilities? And a kind of crazy new hobby. So the smaller stuff all kinda looks, well, smaller."

Talk to the TA

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Once Cade pings in.

Re: Talk to the TA

[makemyownway.livejournal.com]

Cade was there, scowling at everyone over his cup of coffee. A wind had kept banging his window last night, but when he got up it'd been closed every time.

Karking creepy.

Talk to the Teacher

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He's still hanging around after class.

OOC

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