On Literature and Teaching

  Fiction as a safe place The great, late French historian Paul Veyne, having shown that the ancient Greeks both believed and did not believe in their own myths, asks a question: what was the use of those myths for the Greeks then? Why did senators routinely use mythical references and examples in their speech to their fellow politicians? Veyne’s answers is that it enabled them to discuss actual political matters in a roundabout way, so that political sensibilities would not be hurt by hearing a particular problem discussed openly. In other words, senators would use a myth to introduce a question at play in Athens’ society, but which was too sensitive to some to be aired directly: it needed to be metaphorised , in a way – it needed to be about problem A but discussed in terms of Myth B. This Fiction-as-a-safe-place is one of the great advantages of using literature in class to discuss citizenship-related issues. The Council of Europe (2018), among others, breaks down Citizenshi

  I work in an area – Education – where the latest developments in AI technology have had an immediate impact – and yes, the same has happened across the board, I know. Since last year and Chatgpt’s arrival on the world scene, everyone – from pupils to students and teachers – has been using it. By ‘Everyone’ I obviously do not mean literally everyone, but it is clear that will soon be the case. Pupils use it to get their homework done, or pass tests; students ditto ; teachers to prepare lessons, develop material, design tests and have them marked – among many other things. Unsurprisingly, all those people claim that technology is great and helpful – well, they would, wouldn’t they? And to be fair, ‘great’ and ‘helpful’ are reasonable words to use in this case. So that’s not the problem. Equally unsurprisingly, those users will make sure to remind you of two things at all times: AI is not intelligent as we know and understand that word – it’s mindless, really – just a machine.