Introducing Complex Topics

The students in my 9th grade world history class were excited to talk about ethics in the unit on Machiavelli’s philosophy. Many students said this was their first time talking about ethics in school, so I wanted to make sure I introduced the concept well. This felt really challenging to me because Machiavelli is such a complex historical figure and there is so much content to cover when it comes to his ethics. If students didn’t have a strong understanding of Machiavelli’s context before the discussion, it would basically become an oversimplified discussion about whether Machiavelli was good or bad. I usually like to introduce topics in a way that is hands-on and engaging for my students, but I felt like I didn’t have enough time to cover all the content they should know about Machiavelli’s ideas in order to have a meaningful discussion about ethics. A video could help to introduce all of the complex content, but I knew students would just sit and watch without really engaging with the ideas. A short questionnaire about Machiavelli’s ethics would be more hands-on, but it might be too dry or surface-level. I worried these approaches to the content wouldn’t spark the kind of critical thinking or curiosity I wanted students to bring to the discussion.