Philosophy Club Gives Kids Space To Really Talk

Hanging out with the EGHS Philosophy Club is a bit like spending time with your favorite cousins. There’s a comfort level with this group, which grows and shrinks weekly and even during their hourlong weekly meeting. People talk and they listen, agree and disagree.

The topic? Every week it's different. On the week I visited senior Chris Luo led the discussion on Nature versus Nurture – specifically which people thought played the bigger role. 

For Luo, that’s the value.

Most conversations with his classmates are almost scripted: sports, movies, school. Philosophy Club is different.

“This is a really open place where people can share ideas,” said Luo. “There’s really a lack of that in school.”

Junior Sophia Almeida likes it because it is the opposite of school. “There’s really no structure to it at all.”

In truth, Bob Houghtaling, the club’s adult presence, makes sure there’s always a topic to discuss. Either he or an appointed leader will research the topic and direct the discussion, but Almeida isn’t wrong. The discussion can veer, can reverse, can change completely, if that’s what’s called for.

During the Nature vs. Nurture discussion, many people seemed to favor nurture over nature, including Luo.

“I think nurture is more important,” he said. “There are slight inclinations that exist in our nature. Nurture has a greater affect on how they develop.”

But then there are the studies on identical twins who have been separated at birth and raised in different environments, he said.

Or what about the person who grows up believing they are really good in math, or a great singer, but in fact he or she isn't.

“Nurture can made us believe something about ourselves,” said one member.

Conversely, said another, “You can always doubt what you have in nature and that could be due to how you’re nurtured.”

Jesse Zhan, another senior, said he’d been in the group since sophomore year. He liked it because it was an opportunity to “actively discuss thing with my peers.”

Zhan said it seemed to him a lot of adults underestimated teenagers’ ability to reason and debate. In Philosophy Club, debate isn’t just encouraged, it’s necessary.

To use Zhan’s phrase for it, what happens in Philosophy Club is “entertaining discord.”