Classical/Axial Age Thinkers Go To Starbucks

In groups, divide up the regions: Persia, India, China and Greece.  Each of you must take responsibility for becoming an expert on the thinkers described in that region by reading the appropriate section of the document.

One member of your group should create a Google Document that is shared among the four of you and me (twhittenburlington@gmail.com.)  Check the Sharing settings to be certain that all of us can both edit and view the document.  Once I have the invitation to the document, I will write the topic as the heading of the document.

The following modern dilemmas will be used as topics:

·      The American occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan

·      The current economic crisis in the U.S.

·      Global warming

·      The health care crisis

Develop a dialogue that illustrates how each one of these characters would react to or explain the modern dilemma. Make sure you are being true to each philosopher’s own unique nature.

This should be a dialogue, not a series of monologues, so make sure your characters are responding to one another.

Each character must “speak” at least five times. (And “I agree.” Doesn’t count as speaking…)

You may begin the discussion any way you like, but you should be sure to identify who you are, address your fellow group members in character and start the conversation about your modern dilemma. You can add stage directions also, that makes if more fun. For example:

Zoroaster: (Walks into Starbucks and orders a black, fire-roasted coffee with lots of foam)

“Hello there friends. Have you heard the news? President Obama is planning on taking troops out of Iraq and adding troops in Afghanistan. I applaud his attempts to maintain balance …"

This will be due (the document will be finished) by midnight on Friday, October 22^nd.  We will have performances of the skits beginning on Monday, October 25^th.