Students from across the Senior School and Sixth Form came together on Wednesday 18th March for the latest Scholars Society – an engaging session named “The Architecture of Truth”, designed to stretch thinking and spark discussion.
Led by Michael Depear, Teacher of Economics, the session explored the idea of ‘Knowledge and Knowing’, asking students a deceptively simple question: how do we actually know what is true?
The session began with a series of activities that encouraged students to question their own senses. From discussing whether two people experience the same taste in the same way, to an auditory exercise showing how reading a word can change what we hear, students quickly discovered that our brains play a much bigger role in shaping reality than we might think.
As Michael Depear explained, our senses are not passive – they interpret, filter and sometimes even distort what we experience. This led to a wider discussion about how easily our understanding of the world can be influenced.
Students were introduced to different ways of building knowledge – through perception, reasoning, emotion and language – and explored where they place their trust, whether in experts, people around them, or increasingly, digital and AI-driven sources.
One of the most memorable moments came when students were asked to identify which “facts” were true. In fact, none of them were. The exercise highlighted just how easily misinformation can become accepted when it is repeated often enough.
The session ended with a discussion about the challenges of navigating a world where information is constant and not always reliable. With AI and digital media playing an ever-growing role in everyday life, students were encouraged to think carefully about how they question, interpret and use information.
Scholars Society continues to be an important part of life at AKS, giving students the opportunity to explore ideas beyond the classroom and develop the confidence to think independently and question the world around them – an essential skill for the future.