Stanford Middle School Scholars Program - Democracy & Dissent (Online)

Stanford Middle School Scholars Program is open to low-income students currently in grades 6 or 7 who reside in and attend school in the United States. Scholars are required to attend both the summer and academic year components of the program. Applicants should be interested in or planning to attend a college preparatory, academically rigorous high school. What happens when your idea changes the world and threatens your life? In this course, we will explore the life and thought of famous dissenters. In the first week, we will read The Trial and Death of Socrates as told by the ancient philosopher Plato. We will ask what was so revolutionary about Socrates’s philosophical questioning that it led democratic Athens to sentence him to death for corrupting the youth. In the second week, we will explore works by more recent famous dissenters including Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” We will ask why King thought love was more powerful than hate and why that love drove him to break the law. Along the way, we will ask timeless questions about faith, justice, and their role in a good life. By the end of the course, Scholars will refine their critical thinking skills and use them to think about their roles as citizens of their own communities.