By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 4, 2010;
B01
Schools these days focus mostly on preparing students for tests of reading and math, but during lunchtime at Kenmoor Middle School in Landover, the youngsters sitting in a small circle were tackling the really deep questions: Ethics. Fairness. How to split dessert.
All three issues turned up as the seventh- and eighth-graders in the Philosophy Club tackled the question of the day: "Imagine that you are babysitting a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old. The parents have left some treats for dessert: two bananas, a lollipop and an ice cream bar. The parents' instructions are to allow each child to choose one treat. Unfortunately, both kids want the ice cream bar. How can you distribute the goods fairly?"
Someone suggested that they split the ice cream bar in half, but other students had other ideas.
"Whoever wants the ice cream bar has to eat the banana," said Malcolm Washington, an eighth-grader.
"I'd take a banana and pretend I like it, and then they'd be really, really jealous and they'd want the banana," said Connie Hackett, a seventh-grader.
So it went for half an hour, to the delight of Kathy Gregory and Jan Plane, who led the session.
Gregory started the club four years ago at Glenarden Woods Elementary School while teaching language and social studies to fifth- and sixth-grade students in the school's talented and gifted program. It gave them an intellectual diversion from preparing for the Maryland School Assessment, the examinations in reading and math that are a near-obsession for administrators and teachers.
They discussed issues that don't have simple textbook answers, such as whether animals have rights or whether it is ever permissible to lie.
"It gives kids the ability to think deeply. Kids need that," Gregory said. "The vast majority of these guys have mastered the MSA long ago. They don't need to spend a lot of time on test preparation."
Gregory took the idea to Kenmoor Middle School this year when she became the coordinator of the school's gifted program. Although many of the Philosophy Club's students are in the talented and gifted program, it's open to everyone, and more than 40 showed up at two sessions one day before the winter break.
The heavy smell of cafeteria food hung in the noisy corner of the school's foyer where the kids sat for one session. Announcements were read over the public-address system, and other students trucked through the hallways. But instead of socializing, the two dozen kids in the circle were fully absorbed.
"What about the idea of giving the ice cream bar to the older child?" Gregory asked. "Could that work? Is that fair?"
Absolutely not, the students replied. Better to give it to the most well-behaved child.
"I don't really agree with the whole age thing," said Anisha Hosadurga, a seventh-grader.
"I wouldn't want to give them it by age or anything, because that would be to discriminate over something they have no control over," Malcolm said.
During the second session, the discussion illuminated the sometimes cruel universe of the average middle-schooler.
"Give them the bananas and take the ice cream, because I want the ice cream bar," said Anish Jain, an eighth-grader.
"It's first come, first served," said Amritha Jayanti, an eighth-grader. "You fight for what you want."
"Is this life?" Gregory asked. "Is it survival of the fittest?"
"It shouldn't be, but it is," Amritha answered. "No matter what, someone is going to think they got the smaller half."
"Human nature -- it's a combination of selflessness and selfishness," said Gloria Barrientos-Sanchez, an eighth-grader. "It's up to you where you want the scale to tip."
The discussion moved to whether people could make a decision that was truly unbiased by stripping themselves of their backgrounds -- a concept known in philosophy as the veil of ignorance. Again, the youngsters showed themselves to be hard-headed realists.
"I know this is really, really selfish, but I didn't want Hillary Clinton to win because I wanted to be the first woman president," Amritha said when asked whether she'd prefer to vote for Clinton because she was a woman.
"I think it's good if people vote in a manner that says 'let's look out for number one,' because a lot of people have common interests," said Vishnu Rachakonda, an eighth-grader.
With things just getting started, the period ended. The students reverted from philosophers to teenagers.
"It's a lot of fun," Amritha said. "You realize a lot of things you haven't thought about before."
She was standing with Vishnu, a boy with a bit of swagger. Asked what he wanted to do when he grew up, he responded, "economist, Wall Street, then president."
"I have to be your attorney general," Amritha said.
"But you can't be my first lady."
"Eww!" every girl within earshot squealed.
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