Elevated Discussions by: Kellen Pluntke

Discussion, as I and many other #bowtieboys have said before, is one of the most important ways to bring real life application into the classroom and create a more engaging and thought provoking environment. As the school year continues discussion based classes, especially at the high school level, tend to get more serious as the year progresses. Students get comfortable with the environment and find it easy to voice their thoughts on whatever questions come to the table, and if the content of the discussions doesn’t shift to the next level of thinking, students are likely to get bored. There are plenty of what I call “elevated discussion” topics, but my personal favorites are discussing students’ rights/ rules in school, responsibilities and privileges minors should or should not have out of school, and discussion about any issue relevant in that community at the time.


If the discussions in class are beginning to get stagnant, asking the students how they feel about school rules, and the rights that they should have almost always brings the passion out of a student. Teenagers (especially myself) spend a lot of time either consciously or unconsciously working out their morality in the world, and during this time violations of their rights of what should be will always spark a flame in a student. Justice is a huge part of teenage life, with kids at the high school level beginning to understand the world more, and poking out all the injustice in the world today. This fire can easily be brought into the classroom with a simple discussion about the school rights they have and the rules that they have to follow. Many school rules seem very borderline with being constitutional or not, especially anything pertaining to the first or fourth amendment. Asking your students about what they should be able to wear to school, or if the school police officers should have the right to search your possessions at any time without probable cause will definitely bring some heat back into the discussions in the classroom. I had this exact question in my class in school earlier this semester, and it did a whole lot for the students, both as people and academics. The elevated level of passion in the class allowed me as a student too see that some of my peers that I never thought I could get along with have very similar views and interests as me. The issue that we ran into though, is that most all of the students took the anti-school rule side of the argument. To prevent this from becoming a problem in the first place, with this topic I suggest that as the teacher you strictly try to oppose the views of the students, which will make them think harder to use logic in their arguments to persuade you. After you decide to end the discussion, (which I add might be a tricky thing to do, the students often get very passionate) debrief your students and inform them of your strictly contrarian stance, and then if you feel comfortable, add in your opinion on the matter. The connection that this discussion builds between peers and between student and teacher will do wonders for the class in the long term. Students will feel much more comfortable when they see that many others have similar ideas as them, and that these are real problems and ideas that they are thinking about, and that this kind of thinking is important.


Another discussion idea, that complements the last one, is “What rights should minors have out of school?”. This can go into an array of topics, ranging from the age that teens need to be to acquire a driver’s license to legal issues and so on. The passion will always be there in
these discussions as long as you switch it up a little bit each time. This morality based discussion is fantastic for showing students how to formulate their passionate thoughts in to words that could maybe make some change in the world around them. Teens often begin to feel powerless in our society, especially when it comes to legal issues. This kinds of discussion can empower students greatly, especially if followed by a debriefing talk from the teacher about how teens can make their voices heard, and actually make some hard change out there. This kinds of discussions are so impactful due to that students can learn to see their worth, voice their opinions, make change, create a more powerful bond with other students and the teacher, and leave students still thinking about the topic. If a student is still thinking and talking about what was being discussed in class as they are leaving, then you have created a successful discussion. Students shouldn’t leave their classrooms with just answers, but more questions.


Sometimes events that happen in the community that your school inhabits can bring a very dark mood to all the students and faculty. It’s just the horrors of life that happen every day. For example, last year at my school a young child was killed at an intersection due to apparent distracted driving, and many students saw the scene on the way to school. This caused a terrible gloom to almost come over the students and some teachers, and everyone just didn’t know what to do. If you believe as a teacher that the students will benefit educationally and emotionally from talking about what happened, then by all means do it. Due to the standards that teachers have to cover, many teachers who wanted to discuss this tragedy with the students weren’t able to. However, this is one of the times where the notes might just have to take a seat. These kinds of dark times that can hit a community cannot be fixed with silence. I encourage any teacher of any subject to discuss any emotions that stem from the incident, and the things that students can learn from it if the students appear ready to. It is so important to learn how to voice how you feel about these tragedies, and silencing talk about it just makes all the students seem horrified. Bringing a discussion about these events to your students will help them not just academically, but possibly emotionally as well.


A discussion based class is a great experience for anyone involved, and these ideas are sure to spark up the intensity. Feed in to the morality forming teen mind by asking these questions. Students will grow from these discussions morally, academically, and emotionally. There are plenty of thoughts trapped in the mind of the everyday high school student, and this will give the opportunity for students to finally release those thoughts