In 1630, the astronomer Galileo Galilei was summoned before a court in Rome to face charges of crimes against Christianity. In short, he was charged with “heresy” for putting putting forth and teaching the “absurd” proposition that “the sun is in the center” of our solar system. This idea, known as heliocentrism, directly refuted the long-held belief of the Church–namely, that the Earth occupied the center and heavenly bodies, including the Sun, revolve around us.
[Galileo, with his homemade telescope, had observed the phases of Venus to arrive at his conclusion.]
Grade 8 is in the midst of a unit about the Renaissance, a period of “re-birth” in Europe when the old order (the Church) began to lose ground to a revival of humanism, art, science, and individualism. On Wednesday we had a really insightful talk about status quo and what it means to challenge the status quo. Those who do the challenging often suffer the consequences.
The Renaissance was an era all about taking on the established way of doing things, and Galileo was in the vanguard. Ultimately, the Church found him guilty of his crime and sentenced him to live of the rest of his life under house arrest.
But Galileo was never given the benefit of a defense attorney. That’s where Grade 8 comes in. Their task for this weekend–soon to appear on their websites!–is to write an opening statement in defense of the astronomer. We discussed this as a group and all agreed that merely saying, “He’s right, you’re wrong” would not be a winning strategy. No, our students will need to be clever if they’re to convince a hard-headed and power-hungry group of Church councilors to let Galileo off the hook.
Good luck!
