Discussing principles and convictions to start off their day, Ethics Bowl students meet at 7 in the morning in the CCA Commons. On Sept. 30, the team engaged in a Socratic seminar about how ethical wearing a burka is. The discourse was entirely student-driven, which was the intention of the exercise.
“My goal as the coach is to put the cases in front of them, give them some basic reasoning principles, and get out of the way,” world history teacher and Ethics Bowl sponsor Chris Edwards said. “They [students] have to go through a process of trial and error, learning, and application before they’re prepared,”
The club prepares for the National High School Ethics Bowl competition in February at DePaul University, where teams from around the country are given about a dozen cases and must develop arguments and solutions to the ethical problems. To meet these ends, Edwards wants to avoid a traditional form of coaching, instead allowing students to function as a team to solve problems.
Ethics Bowl was originally known as the Philosophy Club, but the name was changed when the group was invited to join competitions. The change has bred a more professional focus in the team.
“In the past, we were a very informal club,” Edwards said, “But it still isn’t something we want to be a huge commitment of time for students.”
Ethics Bowl is open to all students and does not require a tryout, but because of its competitive nature this year, it wants to have a roster finalized by Oct. 14. So far, the team has had two meetings and ten scheduled members. It has enough to compete, but is open to more before the deadline.
