Practical Philosophy, Friday

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Since the weather was tolerable, Ender had left the students a note to meet him on the dorm lawn. He was already there, seated on the ground, looking exhausted but also happy in an uncharacteristically dopey way. He'd left baby Val with Ben that morning - with difficulty, mind you. He greeted the arriving students with a, "Sit down in a circle, please." He smiled briefly. "Well, there aren't many of you, so I'll accept any formation that makes all of us more or less equal."

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 Skywalker. 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."

He smiled wryly. "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. "As far as I can tell, for most of you, this is all new. You just got here. 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 grabbed a sandwich from the bag. "If one of you wants to call themselves my TA, feel free," he said, "But I'm not sure we'll have much need of one with this group. Maybe we're all TAs, this time around."

Comments

Sign In!

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Philosophically.

Re: Sign In!

[that_oldsaying]

Alluka Zoldyck

Re: Sign In!

[dwarvenswagger]

Thorin

Re: Sign In!

[ldymacgyver]

Daphne Blake

Re: Sign In!

[omgnochecksyet]

Eric Bittle

Listen to the Lecture

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Well, it's more of a long introduction.

Talk.

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"As far as I can tell, for most of you, this is all new. You just got here. 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?"

Re: Talk.

[that_oldsaying]

Andrew was using an awful lot of words and Alluka was still so, so thrilled at being outside that she sort of missed most of them.

But she did get the introduction part, because that was the most interesting part! She got to say her name for people!

"I'm Alluka Zoldyck!" she said happily, hugging her bunny to her chest in lieu of trying to hug anyone else. "I like it here! There's so many nice people and I get to go outside and I even have permission to go to town but I... haven't done that yet, by myself."

Town was a bit overwhelming as an idea for her still.

"And I have friends already!"

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"That's a promising start," Ender said, smiling a little. She pinged young and sheltered, but that was okay; part of the fun of this class was that it had a different feel every time, depending on who was in it.

"Why haven't you gone to town yet?"

Re: Talk.

[that_oldsaying]

"I went once with Kathy!" Alluka hurried to correct him. "And it was fun! But..."

Alluka shrugged and looked down at her bunny. It didn't say anything, but it didn't need to. It was on her side.

"What if I go and they change the rules and I don't know and get in trouble?"

Re: Talk.

[dwarvenswagger]

This seemed like a whole lot of talking about feelings and the like.

"I am Thorin, son of Thrain. At your service," he said with a small bow of his head. "I did not come to this place by choice, nor did I choose my these lessons."

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

Sorry, Thorin. Sometimes feelings needed to be talked about.

"Ah, so you're here by chance, and with me by paperwork error," Ender said. "You don't look happy about it."

Re: Talk.

[dwarvenswagger]

"Would you be pleased to be forced away from your home?"

Would you?

Re: Talk.

[that_oldsaying]

"Um." Alluka peeked over at Thorin, then offered him her bunny solemnly. "If you're sad about being here, hugging him will make you feel better."

It worked for her, anyway!

Re: Talk.

[dwarvenswagger]

Thorin gave the child and then the rabbit a confused look. "No... thank you."

Re: Talk.

[omgnochecksyet]

"My name's Eric, and this is hardly my first time away from home, but it's my first time doing the whole boarding-school thing. And it's mostly okay, but, y'all, my 'big sibling' lights himself on fire! And I'm in a class where people are shooting things at me!"

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Sometimes that happens," Ender said easily. "You're not used to that where you're from, then?"

Re: Talk.

[omgnochecksyet]

"Which part?" Because he was used to neither of those things, Ender.

Re: Talk.

[that_oldsaying]

"Did your brother get hurt?" Alluka asked anxiously. Brothers getting hurt were bad!

Re: Talk.

[omgnochecksyet]

"What?" Eric said, momentarily thrown off by the mention of a 'brother', since he didn't have a- oh, right, the school-assigned sibling that he'd just mentioned. "Oh, no, no, apparently he just- does that? Not, like, as a hobby, but he has some sort of superpower where he can light himself on fire and not get hurt? I don't really understand it, but. He seemed okay." Maybe not the brightest match in the matchbox, but he hadn't been hurt, anyhow.

Re: Talk.

[yogurtvore]

"I'm Blue Sargent and this is my first time away from home, and the furthest I've ever been from home," Blue said. "But I wanted to come here, I wanted to get out and do something different when I got a chance. Even if it was just in Maryland instead of Virginia. It's been...mixed so far. I do miss my family. But I'm glad this place isn't as awful as it could have been." Even if there was at least one Aglionby reject among the student body.

Re: Talk.

[endsthegame]

"Welcome, Blue," Ender said, smiling a little bit. (He was smiley today. It was a thing, but not one anyone in the class right now would be able to identify.) "What were you worried about most about coming here?"

Re: Talk.

[yogurtvore]

"I was afraid it would be like the boys' school in my hometown," Blue explained. "Full of rich jerks."

Talk to the Teacher

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He's sipping from a bottle of water. He won't stay long after class.

OOC

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