Kids Slam Philosophy

The winner of the Kids’ Philosophy Slam has been announced, an essay contest in which students all write about the same topic. This year it was “Is Human Nature Good or Evil?” Congratulations to Vineetha Joseph who beat out 4,000 students from first grade to high school senior.

I was one of the judges and have some advice for next year’s entrants. It’s really very simple and it’s guaranteed to boost the grades on your term papers by at least 1.5 grades: Don’t ever answer the question directly. Always answer a meta-question. “The question isn’t whether human nature is good or bad. The real question is: What is human nature?” “The question isn’t whether the Civil War was caused by economic or social forces. The question is what it means for a large-scale human event such as a war to be ’caused’.” “The question isn’t what Jay Gatsby’s fatal flaw was. The question is what sorts of creatures we human beings are if we can be flawed or not.” Note: For philosophy courses, go up two levels of meta-question. It’s just that simple.

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