Westridge School’s Advanced Ethics: Always Advanced, Now Unleashed

According to Westridge School’s History Teacher Willa Greenstone, Ethics has been a very advanced course since its introduction more than 20 years ago. “Ethics is hard. Students are reading philosophy from original sources—Kant, Aristotle, Mill. This level of reading is very challenging and the level of critical thinking in the course has always been well beyond that of APs.”

And so, it made great sense to give Ethics a Westridge Advanced course designation this year, recognizing it among the most rigorous courses at Westridge. The class is largely the same as past Ethics courses—the amount of reading is the same but the class is going deeper in the texts and students are given more control and agency in assignments. However, Greenstone says its new name has impacted what’s happening in the classroom.

“Students in my Ethics classes have always been very serious, but I am seeing a difference in student commitment to the work and their participation in discussions,” said Greenstone. “I think the fact that they are now making an active decision to take on an ‘Advanced Course’ means that they are committing to more time and an even deeper dive into the content and discussions.”

And Greenstone has seen the impact of some of the deeper learning tenets of Westridge Advanced Courses, which include time for more in-depth discussion, more personalized teaching and learning, and curation of independent, self-directed learning opportunities that are meaningful and relevant to student interests. For instance, each year each student leads a class session. While in the past students were assigned a philosopher to research and present, this year students selected their own subjects. “I was blown away—I could definitely feel their connection to and passion for their subjects this year. They taught each other and me.”

Senior Sophene A., who after taking Advanced Ethics is considering minoring in philosophy in college, appreciates the degree to which the course is discussion based and that it allows students to examine the present day through a unique lens. “It’s a very unique class where you are going beyond the typical history class … to think about your own beliefs, think about modern day and different social and political issues and how we how can evaluate them through these different ethical lenses. It is a really good balance of those different things that make it a pretty cool class.”

Greenstone loves teaching Ethics because, in addition to developing high-level critical thinking, it has such a clear relation to real life especially as seniors are about to experience independent living. “I don’t tell them what to think. I teach them systems of thinking so that they can develop their own ethical constructs.” Indeed, for their final (and ungraded) project of the year, students develop their own ethical construct.

What is Ethics and What Does the Course Cover?
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with designing systems to determine right from wrong. The course at Westridge began as a one-semester course on Western philosophers and expanded to include world philosophers when it became a year-long class. Philosophies in the syllabus are:

Western

• Deontology or duty-based

• Virtue-based

• Consequentialism

World

• Ubuntu (southern African system based on the concept of oneness of society)

• Hinduism

• Confucianism

Westridge School, 324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena, (626) 799-1053 ext. 200 or visit www.westridge.org.