Aitchison Dialectic: Program Summary for 2025

As senior school students at Aitchison grow up to become adults, many will become leaders in their fields; some through achievement, others through inheritance. How is Aitchison preparing these students to address fundamental questions: their place in and obligation to society, their path in life and the personal missions they select, and the capacity and motivation to critically assess their life stories?

With the Aitchison Dialectic, the School is aiming to inculcate in students:

1. An ability to read deeply, think critically and learn from others
2. Explore and develop a personal ethics and measures of a life well lived
3. To conceive their own measure of responsibility from the personal to the societal
4. Tolerance of disagreement

To develop critical thinking, students must practice thinking critically. In other words, what we are seeking to develop requires direct engagement by the students rather than lectures. The topics are addressed in a discussion format in groups of 15 students with two moderators per group to set the stage, ask the right questions and guide the discussion. Students are given reading materials to read before each session (from 10 to 15 pages for each module). We meet on Fridays and generally, each module lasts for about three and a half hours.

The Fall Sessions cover the following topics in Ethics over four modules:

1. First Module: What is a Just Society? And, Who Decides?
2. Second Module: The sources of Ethics: Psychology, Religion/Culture and Rationality
3. Third Module: Who is a Moral Person? Kant and Utilitarianism
4. Fourth Module: Essay and Discussion

The Spring Sessions cover the following topics:

1. Economics and Development
2. A Study of History
3. Personal Development
4. Guest Lecture & Town Hall