Argument

With Thanksgiving a scant few weeks away, it means we're in the home stretch of the semester (Thank Goodness!) What that means for me is dreaded argument essay . I try to make the preliminaries leading up to the essay fun: we play a game called Natural Disaster where the students have the ability to save 5 from a list of 10 fictitious people, all of whom have various skills and faults and will be responsible for the future of Earth. There is no one right answer to their lists; what matters is that they develop reasoned positions for who they choose to keep or exclude. Of course, inevitably, the old people (this semester that meant anyone over 40! Yikes!) were of no use to them (for reproductions' sake).

One of the things we discuss in class though is what "the future of Earth" means to them, since how they interpret that will shape the list of people saved. It's a fun discussion because almost always they assume it translates to "repopulate." Of course that's part of it, but, as I point out to them, how would you like it if you were told you had to procreate with someone not of your own choosing.

I usually end class with this: 1) because it's just so freaking funny and 2) because it's relevant to the following class when we discuss what an argument is