My conversational German course just voted to hold a debate about shopping. I feel a little bad, but I’m going to take the anticommercialism even higher.
Edit: or should I do boycotts? I would love ideas, I’m brand new at this. I suspect at least one of the students is right wing, but I also think it might just be what he grew up with and not something he’s necessarily considered and committed to. I’d like to not push him away if possible, while still giving him some information and perspective that might make him think.
How about:
You don’t have much choice as an individual consumer because huge conglomerates are allowed to buy or ruin competitors.
Shrinkflation?
Push to buy local, union, or from co-ops
I need to find something that they can discuss- I feel like they might all agree about those, but I could do a temperature check about local vs Amazon. At least one of them probably buys from Amazon.
I was thinking about giving pairs a company to research and they could look up reasons to boycott or support them and then debate that. I don’t know if anyone would want to argue for the companies, but they might want to argue against boycotting. I could maybe assign each of them a role in the company, industry, interest groups and government, then have them debate a policy.
It’s the only choice.
Awesome! I’ve taught chemistry this way!
Solubility basics: acidic substances dissolve better at higher pH and vice versa. Example: tea pigmentation, slightly acidic. Compare: normal tea steeping, steeping tea in water with lemon (hint: add lemon AFTER steeping next time!), steeping tea in water with a hint of cheap baking soda added (notice slight taste modification, does that feel familiar? Somebody might save pennies by using less tea to get the color and nothing else in the only drink available). Discuss.
Result: students leave outraged with their canteen, school admin, the government that made this happen.
Give them the lesson about percentages. “If the stock market yesterday morning was at 11000 points and falls 30% by close yesterday. only to rise by 30% today. Will the wealthy class claim that it closed at the same level before yesterday morning or acknowledge they skimmed the top while playing it off as it bounced completely back?”
“If the stock market yesterday morning was at 11000 points and falls 30% by close yesterday. only to rise by 30% today. Will the wealthy class claim that it closed at the same level before yesterday morning or acknowledge they skimmed the top while playing it off as it bounced completely back?”
It would also be a good lesson to teach them about how percentages are multiplicative rather than additive, and can be used like statistics to trick you.
For example, a 1100 base and having the market drop by 30% then rise by 30% would leave the market down by about 9% (1100 * .7 * 1.3 = 1001). You would actually need a 43% rise after the 30% fall to bounce completely back. (1100 *.7 * 1.43 = 1101.1)
Even if you don’t get this blatant, percentages are a nice topic to teach about how ads and statistics can easily lie. Also drives home why knowing maths is important.
