Session Two - Saturday 12th November 2011

Thirty two Emerging Scholars returned to Forest School for Session Two of ESIP on a mild November morning. Some were so keen they arrived a half hour before breakfast club was due to start!Breakfast club provided an opportunity to renew friendships and make new ones as well as start the day with ‘fuel for learning’.

The team of four staff, ably supported by our six mentors, led a whole day session on Philosophy and Critical Thinking. The girls split into Red group and Blue group with Katie leading the Red classroom and Paul leading the Blue one.

The session examined the role of God and the connection to human behaviour, considering how and why people believe in God and the implications for this Summer’s London riots and how we might prevent them happening again. This offered the girls the opportunity to look at philosophical perspectives of God and present a clear case for their beliefs. The first part of the session was challenging and took some of us outside our comfort zone but enabled us to be confident in what we believed and how we presented that to others. This also helped increase our awareness and tolerance to others views and perspectives.

“I have learnt how to think in depth and when I ask a question think of it leading to other questions.”

In Part Two we assessed the role of religion in politics, considering how religion has been used as force for social change around the world and reflecting on the roles of fundamentalism (and what that really means) and far right nationalism. The students debated two separate viewpoints, in some cases having to justify a point of view they did not personally share, all contributing to improved skills in critical argument.

“My challenge is to try and use my knowledge in other things apart from school and ESIP, also to think more about what I have learned and not just learn and then forget”

Part Three looked at the London riots, what events in society might have caused them, who got involved and why were they allowed to happen. The girls developed their presentations in small groups to produce an ‘explanation of the riots’ from their perspective and developed guidelines for the Government to help prevent the riots from occurring again.

“I have learnt people have different views and this is helpful because I can use this to understand other people more and their beliefs. My challenge is to speak out more and be more open towards others.”

After a long, challenging but rewarding day, we reflected on what we had learned and how to put it into practice in the weeks and months ahead.

“I achieved further knowledge into philosophic strategy and the confidence when initiating a presentation. It made all the difference as I’m now positive that I would be able to make statements without any doubts on my half. I’m going to try and contribute and compose more explanations and presentations. I’d like to be able to give a full speech without any pauses, and be flawless in certain aspects. I should also be paying more attention and watching the news as it could contribute to my general knowledge.”

Next stop is Session Three – Aspirations, Art and Ways of Seeing, back at Forest School on Saturday 3rd December.