Find out more about the FOOD for THOUGHT programme here
FUNdaMENTAL Forums
Variety is the spice of life, someone once told me, although I prefer paprika. But I always follow good advice, so the Food for Thought Programme is all about variety.
There are twelve different threads within the programme, some of which I have introduced already on this blog, and others I will discuss at a later date. Pupils are welcome to focus where their interests draw them but are encouraged to try their hands at the whole range of challenges provided.
Our normal seminars are pupil-led, and tend to cover the whole gamut of intellectual opportunities that the programme provides, from arguments to riddles, from maths problems to painting, from the sublime heights of high culture to the downright ridiculous: one group earlier this term ended up watching a version of Pachelbel’s Canon as played on a squeaking rubber chicken. They draw the inspiration for these creative intellectual explorations from the stimulus packs provided on the FfT Team.
However, once a term, I like to mix things up even further, so in recent weeks the groups have experienced their first FUNdaMENTAL Forums. These sessions are fully games-based – a chance for even freer intellectual playfulness, but still focused on developing the key skills for high-level creative and critical thinking.
Just to give you a taste of what pupils have been enjoying, allow me to introduce you to two excellent games which we enjoyed playing in this term’s FUNdaMENTAL Forum, and let me explain why I think they provide incredibly valuable training exercises for young minds.
First, we have enjoyed playing a game called ‘Debate It’.
In this game, we pick a card at random that contains a contentious question: for example, one that came up in one of our Forums this term was ‘Should people be limited in what they can say?’. Then each team is given one of two cards at random that say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The team has a short time to consult and then must argue the case for the side they have been given – whether they really agree with it or not. The groups have had a lot of fun constructing plausible (or tenuous!) arguments themselves, and pulling apart the arguments of the other team. This game is fantastic for developing skills in a number of the Food for Thought strands: it requires logic to build arguments, rhetoric to propose them convincingly, critical skills to dissect the arguments of others, and centrally, the willingness to play Devil’s Advocate.
Second, we had a wild time with a wonderful game called ‘Everyone’s an Expert’.
In this game, the group is assigned a random world problem to solve. For example, one that came up was the problem of ‘Killer Asteroids’ hitting the earth and causing mass destruction. Players are also assigned cards with two random words or ideas on them. They then have to propose a solution to the problem involving the two things they’ve been given (e.g. constructing a giant trampoline out of bamboo, to bounce the asteroids back into space, as someone proposed). I was amused later to read in the newspaper that my favourite suggestion – that we simply allow the asteroid to hit and then use ancient wisdom (specifically stoicism) and plastic surgery to make the best of an admittedly bad situation – wasn’t far off what some top scientists were currently proposing: “One option eliminates the need for a survival guide […] - waiting until it is too late and just accepting the end of humanity” (‘How to survive a killer asteroid impact’, Daily Mail, 3rd March 2023).
The game inevitably results in a lot of joyous silliness – but equally it helps practise a key skill all pupils ultimately need in high-level exams, and especially those who go on to interviews and entrance exams for universities like Oxford or Cambridge. That is, the ability to make the most of the tools that you do have: to say not ‘I can’t do it’, but rather ‘What can I do?´ or ‘What would I do if I had to?’.
Both games are available to buy online and provide hours of family entertainment, if you’d like to try your hand at them at home!
From the ridiculous to the sublime: next time, I’ll be sharing some thoughts on the broadly ‘cultural’ strands of the Food for Thought Programme. Until then, go and solve the problem of political corruption with duct tape and a swarm of bees…
DPB
