By Keira B, Tilde E., Grade 9
Remember when you were a little kid who had big ideas about small things? When your only worry was what sandwich, your parents packed for lunch today? Looking back on it now, life seemed so simple!
We interviewed two students from the junior school and two graduating seniors from MIS and asked them complex philosophical questions to see just how growing up impacts our perspective on life. ***
First up, we met with Louise, our first graduating student. Louise comes from Sweden and Austria and has been a part of the student council since last year.
Next, we spoke with Arden, a bubbly 6-year-old Londoner. She’s an active junior school body, enjoying ballet, dancing and gymnastics! She loves her grandma “Nanny’s” food.
After a short struggle finding him, we met Niall. This aspiring footballer comes from India and England. And is an avid enjoyer of Ed Sheeran and Brawl stars (he’s a passionate gamer).
Our last senior student was interviewed slightly differently. We failed to reach him several times face to face and instead sent him the questions and received a written response. Phil is 17 years old and comes from Switzerland. He has lived all over the world, quite literally, including countries such as Switzerland, South Africa, the US (New Jersey), Germany and the Netherlands! He is interested in finance and even started programming a sustainability-based app!
***Note: to include more perspectives and carry out a more inclusive interview, we asked students who were both genders to represent the student body. This is not to disclude non-binary or gender non-conforming individuals.
Q1: Are people born with the right to be happy, or should they have to earn it?
Our first question resulted in a unanimous answer. All participants believe that you are born with the right to be happy.
Louise was quick to add that she doesn’t believe an individual can ever do something to lose that right, whereas Phil had a different take. Phil tells us that people are born with the right to be happy but not with the right to be successful. He tells us that he measures his own happiness by his success, meaning that he must earn his happiness, however, he claims that this is a choice. Therefore, concluding that other people can find happiness in other ways, resulting in their right to be happy from birth.
“What makes us happy can be taken away, but the emotion of happiness is intrinsically what makes us human and can therefore not be taken away, merely sourced differently” Phil said.
Q2: Are human ethics learned or natural? (Are people naturally good, or do they learn to be good people as they grow?)
Here we had an even split, our junior school interviewees said that humans are taught to be good and learn to be good as they grow older. Whereas our senior school interviewees believed that people are born good but can be influenced to be made ‘bad’.
Both senior schoolers brought up the idea of ‘human nature’ and how it is inherently good, with conditioning from the atmosphere we grow up in and our complex experiences, our moral compass (as Phil calls it) can be altered.
Q3: What do you believe happens after we die?
Arden believes that we will go to ‘heaven’ after we die, she never mentioned the existence of the common idea of a ‘hell’. Arden also never told us that heaven was a reward or that you earn a place there, she simply believes that everyone will end up in her version of a ‘heaven’. She did, however, tell us with glee that her family have lived long lives and strongly believes that she will too.
Louise holds a similar belief system, in the way of a ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ type situation, although she thinks of it as karma. To put it simply, if you have done good in your life and are a ‘good’ human, you will be rewarded in a nice afterlife – if you have done bad or controversial things, you will be punished in a ‘hell’.
Niall has a very literal approach to this question,
“After I die, we will have a funeral,” he said.
After some more pushing, he produced a slightly more introspective answer surrounding the popular belief of reincarnation. In Niall’s world, if you have been a bad person, you will be reincarnated as an animal, and, in being a good human, one would be reincarnated as another human.
Phil, as a self-proclaimed rationalist, and after having many discussions in his TOK class (Theory Of Knowledge), doesn’t believe in the existence of anything that is commonly believed to occur after death.
“I do not believe in life after death,” Phil said.
There is not enough palpable evidence for him to believe as such, therefore, he finds no reason to believe in an afterlife.
Q4: What would make the world a better place?
We had one answer that truly stuck out from the rest. Both junior school students mentioned the erasure of climate change, specifically “not wasting anything” (Arden), “not littering” (Niall). Here, we are seeing that children are being taught about the devastation that is the corruption of nature and our planet.
Louise also commented on climate change very briefly.
Both of our female students said that kindness and people being more tolerant, helping each other would result in a better world.
Both seniors had slightly more developed answers, Louise giving us the interesting insight that there is no perfect situation for our world, and that utopia would never be a realistic goal for the world.
Phil however, had a more surprising answer. He thinks the world would be a better, fairer, place if something called ‘information transparency’ was more present.
“Most of the disagreements and regrettable decisions in the world are founded in false assumptions about their respective context,” he said.
His advanced view was summarized by him, saying that if we make more informed decisions, we will have less disagreements, making the world fairer and ultimately, better.
Q5:What is a piece of advice you would give people?
Our seniors had some differing advice for us, take whichever applies to you:
Louise: “Do what makes you happy, work hard, be good, and prioritize yourself.”
Phil: “Be proud but never satisfied, as there is always room for improvement.”
To make this question more palpable, as the junior school students didn’t quite understand why someone would need advice, we asked them a slightly different question. You can see their answers to this in question “Q5a”.
Q5a: What would you tell someone to do if they had a bad day?
Niall, ever the brawl stars lover, would cheer the person up by playing brawl stars (an online game) with them.
Arden would advise the person to get food, especially her grandma’s food, which always cheers her up.
Q6: What makes someone beautiful?
These answers are bound to surprise you! Niall, the 7-year-old was the only person to answer with even a slight reference to physical beauty.
To start with, Niall had no idea what makes someone beautiful, after sitting in silence for a few moments to let him think about it, he decided that a kind and caring person equates to a more beautiful person.
“It helps if they look good too,” he said.
Arden was very confident in her answer that absolutely anything makes someone beautiful. After plaguing her with follow up questions, she was still adamant that anything (and everything) makes someone beautiful.
Louise says that kindness, and people who see struggling people are automatically considered more beautiful in her eyes.
Phil had the most unique answer, saying that ‘intellectual curiosity’ adds to someone’s beauty. As he explains;
“If someone can represent their perspectives rationally without becoming emotionally invested in the discussion, they show that their opinions are informed and that they truly value their own view on the world,” Phil said. “If they are intellectually curious, they can carry a conversation and add value to a relationship.”
Q7: Do you believe there is a god?
Three of the students believe in a God, both junior school students told us they believe in God because of their parents’ influence. Louise on the other hand, believes in a god of unknown form, she said that she believes in the idea of a ‘higher power’ but that the form of a human god isn’t exactly how she envisions it.
Phil, like many, doesn’t believe that there is a god, but understands that through religious figures, it is easier to instill common values into a society, as the beginning of the idea of a god. He says that god’s ‘actual existence in the form it is preached is highly debatable’.
Q8: What is your dream job or goal in life?
Louise wants to be an entrepreneur; she aspires to do something that she is motivated to do because it inspires her and potentially other people. Louise wants to work hard in a path of work that she is passionate about.
Similarly, Phil’s goal in life is to have a lasting impact on people, not just in his immediate surroundings but on a global scale.
Arden has big dreams for herself, her goal being to make it into the Olympics, a dream lots of young people have.
Niall tells us, with full confidence, that he intends to become a banker. We found this answer a little odd, and therefore proceeded to ask him some follow up questions to find out more. When asking “why do you want to become a banker?” he puts it very simply “because” finding this answer rather vague, we pressed it some more, and he tells us it will be fun to make lots of money from the bank.
Q9: Who is the most important person in your life?
Every student who was asked this question, regardless of age, agreed that their family were some of the most important people in their life. Specifically, Phil mentioned his older sister (20) who is good at advice and listening. Arden mentioned her parents, little brother, Uncle George, and her grandparents. Similarly, Niall is grateful for his mum, who bought him Ed Sheeran tickets, saying she does a lot for him, making her the most important.
Louise said first that she thinks she is the most important person in her own life, because the longest relationship you will ever have in your life is the one that you have with yourself. She says that for our own mental and physical health, we should prioritize ourselves, putting her family and close friends as the 2nd most important people in her life.
Conclusion
We would like to extend our thank you to Louise, Phil, Arden, and Niall for agreeing to participate in this interview. Through doing these series of interviews, it is possible to observe the changes of growing up. How society affects children and how external influence can change one’s outlook on life. Through the younger students’ typically positive answers, we are able to see that everything seems possible to fresher eyes, and their outlook on life is less intense and troubled.
The older students had a more orderly way of answering, with carefully thought-out, fully fleshed answers about life, the future, and the past. This may come from understanding more about yourself as an individual, with less attachment and dependence on others, specifically parental influence. Both Phil and Louise seemed to have a sense of confidence in themselves and seemed sure of their interest and values, whereas the younger students haven’t discovered all of their possibilities and how they fit into the world yet.