Plato.
Socrates.
Smith.
Hobbes.
It may sounds like a college-level philosophy class, but in fact, it’s Gabi Fondiller’s, co-founder and director of Hatua Likoni’s, new class that she’s teaching to Hatua’s gap year students once a week.
Gabi originally took the six-week online class “How to Change the World” through Coursea, an educational platform that partners with universities and organizations to offer free online course to anyone, anywhere. She really enjoyed taking the class herself and thought it would be great to share with Hatua’s students.
The class is taught by Professor Michael Roth, President of Wesylan University, and touches on three main questions:
“What do we know?
Why should we care?
What can we do?”
The students watched the introductory videos of the class which touched on how motivation of self-interest and the competition of resources can lead to destruction. Many of the points sparked intense discussion. One student asked if the common good should always be put first or if there can be a balance (with self-interest). Another students brought up a question inquiring about industrialization and development versus conservation, in lieu of climate change and carbon emissions. Other points were made on the harm of exporting non-processed goods and on the need to balance agriculture with industry.
What the students discovered is that most of the time, common interest also serves one’s self interest. If everyone competes for the same resource without organization it can end up depleting the entire resource.
Each week the students will be writing an essay on what they learned. Be on the lookout for some of their top essays, which will be posted to the blog in coming weeks!