Out of the ever changing list of Village School electives, 2016’s spring semester features a Village favorite: Big Issues. Taught by Jeff Bernstein, students learn about some (big) issues happening in the world. This year, we started by learning LD (Lincoln Douglas Debate), a technique that helps us argue our points of view with supporting facts. The topics we discuss in class are chosen by students. For each topic, we are introduced to several examples, hold class discussions, and then complete writing assignments. The class is purposely set up in a way that forces students to depend entirely on the facts, rather than our opinions or personal biases.

A Village school senior, Jared Gomberg, who is currently enrolled in this class and has taken it before, says it is his favorite social studies elective. So far, his favorite part of class was an LD debate about whether or not violent crime against an oppressive government is okay. Other topics he is looking forward to exploring in debates are controversial issues such as abortion, gun control, the criminal justice system, the death penalty, and police brutality.