Short & Curly is a silly but serious ABC podcast, combining adventure, comedy and ethics for kids and families. Nerves were high as 12 of our Year 6 students entered their English classroom to see its transformation into a professional podcasting studio (thanks, Mr Peel).
Over two afternoons, the students acted as the ‘brains trust’ and discussed, over Zoom, a number of ethical issues with the ABC’s ‘Short and Curly’ producer Kyla Slavan. The Short and Curlies thrown at them were:• Do rules about right and wrong change when there is no future? Do some things only matter because there is a future? How would you deal with a little thing called... the end of the world?!• Have you ever been in a situation where no one would own up to being the person who did something wrong? Sometimes parents or teachers will threaten to punish everyone unless the real culprit comes forward. Collective Punishment- is it fair to punish the whole class?• Who is the Amazon for? Who owns a forest? And even more, since the Amazon forest itself is known as the lungs of humanity, who should get to decide what happens to this huge and complex part of our planet? Are countries allowed to do what they want with things that belong to them? Or that exist in their borders?• Have you ever considered, that the built world that we humans have created might not work for everyone? Like if you are very tall or very short, if you use a wheelchair, if you walk really slowly, if loud sounds hurt your brain and more. So should we actually design and build a world for everyone? And is that even possible?
Our Year 6s did an amazing job. Each of them should be incredibly proud of themselves. Rest assured the future is in good, ‘ethical’ hands!
We are looking forward to meeting Carl Smith, the co-host of the podcast and a Somerset college Alumni and producer Kyla Slaven at our next StoryFest to hear more.
Short and Curly can be found in your favourite podcast app. Just search for Short and Curly and stay tuned to hear the Somerset Year 6 Brains trust!
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