Ethics 4º ESO: the story of Genie.

 Our first unit is aimed to study human beings and, for that purpose, some relevant cases of  feral children -the story of Genie- will help us understand the necessity of living in society. This feature and,obviously, rational thought  can define humans beings, as Aristotle pointed out many years ago.

                       

Therefore, we are reading these cases and watching a video about the issue. Here you have some excerpts and the whole video we have seen in class.

" On  november 4, 1970 a girl was discovered. She had been locked in a room alone for over ten years. She was tied to a potty chair and left to sit alone day after day. At night she was tied into a sleeping bag which restrained her arms(...) Genie was rescued and put in Children,s Hospital in Los Angeles..."
"A team of scientists began working with Genie. They wanted to find out what they could about how humans learn. Did Genie have a normal learning capacity? Could a nurturing, enriched environment make up for Genie´s horrible past? Would it be possible for Genie to recover completely?

Pictures: covers of two books. The first one  about feral children in general, the second one focused on Genie and written by S. Curtiss-a foremost member of "Genie Team".

Optional task: Look for information about the film "The Wild Child" (director, themes, awards...). Use a chart to present your information.