Philosophy in High School, part I

I am a big fan of philosophy as part of high school curriculum. I don't know if it is something accessible to students at all levels, but it is definitely something that youth should study insofar as it is possible.  I speak from my own experience, though I don't claim to be absolutely right.

I was introduced to a very small dose of philosophy in my own high school experience. In my junior English class we read the allegory of the cave from Plato's Republic. I remember kind of understanding the concept, but it's pretty vague in my memory. I think we also had to do a paper comparing and contrasting Thoreau's Civil Disobedience and Plato's Apology (or some other dialogue), but I don't remember that too well either.

The first time I really philosophized during high school was senior year, and it was very Platonic in nature, so I wonder if that tiny introduction the year before made some kind of impression after all.

I was playing a lot of video games (imagine that - just being true to my generation). At that particular time I found myself totally enmeshed in Final Fantasy VII. When I wasn't playing it, I would still think about it, imagining what I was going to do next in game play, reviewing the things I still needed to collect, pondering the best way of getting more experience points, etc. Too much of my time was wrapped up in the game.

Cool game, and a surprisingly apt title
for it's place in my story...

Then came the moment of grace. I started reflecting on the game playing. I started to see it for what it was: an obsession. I started to realize that every moment spent on that game was a moment of reality of which I was depriving myself. Every ounce of my energy spent on that imaginary reality was energy I wasn't giving to real human relationships or to problems and resolutions that actually matter. The emptiness of the game became apparent to me in the face of the real world around me that I had somehow hidden from view for a long time.

But grace didn't stop there. The crucial step still had to be taken:

I asked myself, "What if?" I suddenly remembered that there was a yet higher reality, something truer than what I was counting as concrete. It occurred to me that just as much as my real life (on the level of high school, friends, and family) was truer than the world of Final Fantasy VII, just so was Life (on the level of faith, the divine, and the spiritual) a truer reality than everything else. It's not exactly Plato, but at the same time, it's not exactly opposed to him either.

And so I started to place emphasis on that which I had (rather suddenly) came to consider was the most important, the most worthy of emphasis. Above all else, God was the most real, and the most worthy of being the center of my life and of all my efforts.

It was in such a climate that I decided to enter the seminary. Imagine that: without philosophy (that is, actual philosophizing, not just learning about philosophy) I never would have joined the seminary. I wouldn't be the deacon I am today, and I wouldn't be approaching ordination in the spring.

Random picture:

Participating in the "bad sweater"
contest at the seminary.  I didn't win, but
I'm not mad, because that's a fine sweater.