I’ve been compiling a list of questions and ideas about ethics and philosophy that parents or teachers could discuss with children. I keep a running list going and when I accumulate a fair number of them I compile and post here on my blog. Sometimes I’m not too good at noting the source, so please forgive me my lack of detail. Some of the thoughts come directly out of my head, but most really are from other sources.
- What makes something beautiful?
- What does something have to have to be beautiful?
- What does it feel like when something is beautiful to us?
- Is this always true?
- For something to be beautiful does someone have to think it is beautiful?
- If something is beautiful, is it always beautiful?
What does friendship mean – specifically between a human and an animal? Think about these qualities with a human friend and then imagine which of them applies to animal friendship, too.
- What is a friend?
If someone is a friend is this true:
We talk a lot.
We share thoughts with each other.
I like him or her.
We help each other.
She/he thinks I am her/his friend.
The following is from the Northwest Center for Philosophy in Children:
What can you do with time? Waste it? Spend it? Kill it?
Are there better or worse things to do with it?
My favorite way to spend time is to…
And the reason why is…
2. What is the strangest thing that ever happened to you?
What made it strange?
Is there anything in the world that isn’t strange?
Why is it not strange?
3. Does doing something dangerous show you are brave?
What if someone has made you do it?
4. What’s the difference between “feeling” brave and “being” brave?
The following questions are of my design. I came up with these as I wrote my children’s book series. This is a short selection of the thousands of questions that can be raised from the contents of that series. I absolutely meant the books to be thought provoking!
Changing into something/someone else:
Could you change into something/someone else by wishing it?
If you could change into anything/anyone else what would it be?
Why? What would be a good reason to change into something/someone else?
Can anything you imagine really exist?
What is real?
Give an example for each, please.
If you can touch it?
If you can see it?
If you can smell it?
If you can hear it?
If you can taste it?
If you can ‘sense’ it?
If you can dream about it?
If you can measure it?
If you can read about it?
10. Are colors real?
11. Are other dimensions real?
12. Are some things more real than others?
Have a thoughtful conversation about others’ rights. Think outside of a human frame. What about animals’ rights. Explore the boundaries of those rights – are there different rules for different species? If this is so in the child’s mind, have them explore their reasoning. Take it even farther – what about other living things? What rights do insects, trees and other organisms have and why?
Here is a synopsis of the lessons I teach in each of my three books:
Book 1: Angels and Horses
1. We can’t control how a person behaves towards us but we can control what we ‘think’ about it and then what we ‘do’ about it.
When someone either does or says something mean to us it gives us an opportunity to get to know the part of ourselves responsible for being greater – being forgiving, compassionate, or just nice’.
By not reacting the way the offender expects us to (answering aggression with either aggression, over reaction or submission) but by employing a neutral position, we disarm him or her.
Change the way you actually ‘feel’ about the attack. (ie. pity instead of defensive)
2. By focusing on a past situation one repeatedly surfaces old feelings associated with that situation and even recreates events that evoke those same emotions.
Everyone can control the way they feel by focusing attention on one feeling or another. Keep reaching for the next best feeling. Imagine your emotions on a scale and keep reaching for the next best/highest.
Feelings are how you create the world around you – focusing attention.
3. Meditation/Intuition: Listening to one’s intuition – getting quiet.
Look up at the clouds but instead of imagining them to be objects look between the clouds instead. You won’t be tempted to make them into anything.
Imagine your mind has two doors – an entrance door and an exit door. As a thought comes into your mind, acknowledge it as being there but you don’t invite it to stay, simply let it leave through the exit door.
4. Expect the best from a situation. Instead of wasting your focus on expecting the worse and hoping for the best, just expect the best! Not only does it affect the outcome on a subatomic level, it also keeps you in a happier state. If something doesn’t turn out the way you would like you will be disappointed anyway, so why not feel better and more hopeful until it happens?
5. We are all part of an eternal thing – made up of the same thing. From a subatomic perspective we are all just energy vibrating at different at different frequencies – whether human, animal or inanimate object.
Energy may change form but it never disappears. You may not always be as you see yourself now, but the energy that is you will go on forever.
6. I introduce the idea of time not being linear and the possibility of things existing in different dimensions at the same time. I do this primarily to encourage philosophical thought.
Book 2: Summer of Magic Horses
I continue to talk about time and alternative realities (multiple dimensions) and I also present the idea in depth about communicating with animals along with discussing the roles animals play within our lives.
I speak a great deal about quantum mechanics and how we create on a subatomic level.
The main character is repeatedly presented with complicated characters in which a method to relate needs to be cultivated. The little girl learns to shift her focus and find things she can like about these difficult characters, and even creates opportunities to make a connection.
This particular book is mostly about developing friendships and tolerance for others unlike oneself. I also offer reminders of how to stay focused in the present where appropriate.
Book 3: Angels, Horses and Other Worldly Lessons
I embark on further discussions on quantum physics explaining the mechanics of how when we place our attention on something we collapse its wave potential and force it into a particle reality – matter, in essence.
I talk about emotions and thoughts being energy and more about changing what one ‘feels’ in order to create new life circumstances.
I give more strategies for quieting one’s mind and listening to intuition. I offer a light meditation presented in an age-appropriate way encouraging the idea of living in the present and maintaining a positive attitude.
My angel character, Marguerite says, “One of the most important ways to feel happier is to avoid basing happiness on whether or not anything changes in the world outside of yourself…”
I use horses as a means to show the characters in the book aspects of human nature.
I talk about time and the possibility of parallel universes and inter-dimensional travel.
While the characters continue to have issues surrounding complicated friendships they learn forgiveness and tolerance.
I wrote this article back in March 7, 2009 ~ and I thought I would re publish it. As I’ve been busy visiting schools and meeting with teachers, these are only some of the deep curiosities experienced in my wonderful encounters ….
How can the Law of Attraction make a difference in my life?
By becoming aware of your predominant thoughts, and continually shifting your focus away from what you do not want towards what you do want, you will begin to see a change in the situations presenting themselves in your life. You will begin to realize that it is YOU who is actually in control. You will no longer feel like a tiny boat being tossed about by a turbulent sea.
How can I use the Law of Attraction to get what I want?
You can have anything you want – but you have to decide what it is you really want and stick with that thought. The more energy you put into a thought or an idea the more quickly and firmly it will manifest in your life (good or bad). Your current situation in life is a direct result of what you are feeling, thinking and believing.
Shift your focus to thoughts that include only what you want.
Continually seek a better feeling. If you are feeling doubtful and victimized you will not attract what it is you are wanting. Feelings are the ultimate creative engine!
Take some proactive measures to bring the feeling of your desire into your current reality. When you think of it do so as if the object of your desire is already in your current reality. Access the emotion of it by cutting out pictures of it, painting it, drawing it, and creating it in any way you can. Keep it in your imaginary reality and it will manifest in your physical reality (there is real science behind this).
Stop worrying! Worry removes your focus from everything else and shifts your focus in a concentrated way on the very thing you fear. Worry and fear then join forces to bring into your existence that which you are fearing! The Law of Attraction responds not only to what we want but also to what we don’t want consciously as well as subconsciously.
And… of course… READ MY BOOKS!
Why would you want to teach Quantum Physics to kids?
Well, why not? We spend a lot of time teaching them Newtonian Physics (gravity) and plenty of other things that seem to control their reality. We can empower children by showing them how their world is created on a sub-atomic level, and show them how they are fully involved in it whether conscious of it or not. What better gift than to show a child they have the power to control their world.
Isn’t this just positive thinking?
This goes way beyond the idea of controlling your life through “positive thinking.” Although ‘positive thinking’ is a nice start, it won’t create a reality in and of itself. The reality is really created by thinking and feeling together. Mindless repetition of a positive thought doesn’t work because there is no feeling behind it. I have a friend who has labeled this the “Happy Face Sticker Over the Empty Gas Gauge” syndrome. To manifest your desires a fair amount of attention needs to be placed on that intended desire. Here’s the really tricky bit: to place attention on it and then ‘let it go’ and know it is forthcoming. No clock-watching to determine constantly whether or not it is here yet. Doing so only brings the thought that it isn’t here yet so it isn’t coming, and that emotion pushes it farther away.
Sounds like science fiction to me…
You needn’t take it from me. There are innumerable resources which explain this at different levels of complexity. Quantum Physics has been around since at least the 1930s when Einstein began to popularize his atomic theories. We’ve all heard of E=MC2 (which, by the way, I explain to children 8-12 years old easily in Book 2, Summer of Magic Horses). Once the Quantum Physicists got the Philosophers to understand how reality is created on a subatomic level, we were, and are, able to deliver it to the general population in terms they can understand and relate to.
What other messages do your books contain for children?
Learn to listen to your intuition.
By learning to listen deep within yourself you can gain insight into any situation. We are all graced with an inner knowing, an inner guidance system, which allows us to steer our way through life effortlessly if we pay close attention. Sounds simple, yet it is not easy because we get distracted by dramas unfolding in front of us.
We are all ‘One’
By realizing that we are all part of each other, every entity, every object, everything; by the mere fact that we are made up of the same energy and only separated by the frequencies with which we vibrate, we gain the understanding that we are one thing. To do harm to another simply means doing harm to oneself. By offering kindness to another we are being kind to ourselves. All beings and things, no matter what they are apparently made of, deserve the same respect we would have for ourselves.
Wouldn’t you like a world filled with enlightened people who were able to think critically when a difficult situation presented?
Imagine, just for a moment, a playground where an argument was breaking out. Little Joshua takes a small plastic shovel from the edge of the sand box to begin excavating an imaginary road when Emily, a petulant little girl, screams, “NO! That’s mine!” and dives across the sand to grab it from Joshua’s hand.
Joshua looks at Emily considering his next move. “Maybe,” he thinks, “maybe I’ll… just take that back. It’s not hers, really. It belongs to Sam. After all, why should she have it and not me?”
Emily glares at him and Joshua reconsiders. He decides she is too tough to take it back from and settles on a different approach. “Emily, the shovel really belongs to Sam. I don’t think he minds if we both use it. Do you think we can share it?”
“Oh, sure, Joshua. Now that you put it that way. Of course we can.” Emily answers, smiling.
Yeah, right…
Charming as this would be, I certainly haven’t witnessed anything exactly like this.
Seriously though, critical thinking does come in to play more and more, the older a child gets – if they are guided. While we may progress towards enlightened behavior as we grow by observing others, we can make quantum leaps in our ability to navigate the world successfully by learning critical thinking and thereby developing a high level of emotional intelligence/maturity.
So what is critical thinking exactly?
Way back in 1980, California State University decided and decreed (in their executive order) that instruction in critical thinking was required for every post secondary student. They established that critical thinking was:
to analyze, criticize, and advocate ideas
to reason inductively and deductively
to reach factual or judgmental conclusions based on sound inferences drawn from unambiguous statements of knowledge or belief (Dumke[1980], Executive Order 338)
One of the best methods for teaching critical thinking is to use philosophy and instruction in philosophical thinking at an early age. Waiting until post-secondary school is way too late to introduce such processes, but only recently it has been recognized that children as young as Kindergarten age are capable of philosophical thought.
As parents we have recognized this for a long time. Ask any parent how old their child was the first time they asked a tricky question. In my experience, my son was about two when he wanted to know why nobody lived inside the rock he was holding in his hand. That question stopped me in my tracks. I could have given him an answer that would have satisfied his little mind at the time. I could have told him that the rock was too thick, or full, or ‘solid.’ But instead I wondered whether he, because of his limited experience with being in his body, was finding it limiting to think he could simply not change his density, and enter the rock. At two years old I knew the language was too limiting to entertain the discussion, so it would have to wait until he got a better grasp on the nuances of language. I answered, “I don’t know.”
Personally, I have never even attempted to change my density to enter a rock, but I attribute my ability to even consider such a thing to my mother who encouraged philosophical thinking in me as a child. Unfortunately, during the era of my education ‘critical thinking’ was not taught… at least ‘on purpose’ anyway.
Philosophy classes and encouraging philosophical thought teaches kids how to ‘think’. It is learning to think about thinking. According to the Tuckswood Community First School in Norwich, England, including lessons in philosophy has affected other subjects in the following manner:
English: Speaking, listening, group discussion and interaction, language variation.
Math: Problem solving.
Science: Scientific enquiry, investigation skills, ideas and evidence.
Information & Communication Technology: Develop ideas, exchanging and sharing information.
History: Historical enquiry and interpretation. Geography: Enquiry skills.
Art & Design: Exploring and developing ideas, evaluating and developing work.
Music: Appraising skills, listening, and applying knowledge.
Physical Education: Evaluating and improving performance.
PSHE & Citizenship: Developing confidence and responsibility and making the most of their abilities, preparing to play an active role as citizens, developing good relationships and respecting the differences between people.
It is critical to maintain balance within a child’s educational curriculum and introducing philosophical thinking or philosophy as a subject matter should not be taught at the expense of other subjects but as a means to compliment these areas of study. The Tuckswood School has this to say:
“In recent years there has been a tendency to stress the importance of basic skills and this has been reflected in a reorganizing of the school day to accommodate the introduction of the literacy and numeracy hours. We strongly support the need for high standards in these areas. But it is important to strike a balance between teaching children the basic skills in reading, writing and math and giving them the opportunities to be creative and explore their own ideas and capabilities.”
They continue by explaining: “This has been recognized by the UK Government, in its 1997 White Paper, Excellence in Schools:
~If we are to prepare successfully for the twenty-first century we will have to do more than just improve literacy and numeracy skills. We need a broad, flexible and motivating education that recognizes the different talents of all children and delivers excellence for everyone. (Department for Education and Employment. Excellence in Schools (HMSO, London) 1997
Philosophy provides an arena for discussion, for asking questions and for seeking possible answers. It gives children the time and opportunity to think, talk and be really listened to. It demonstrates the difference between a disagreement and a personal attack. Philosophy teaches children to respect the ideas and opinions of others and to listen and build on those ideas, to be collaborative and to stand up for what they believe in.”
Bravo! This school, and those that follow these same policies and guidelines, offer some hope for populating the world with critically thinking and emotionally mature people. As parents, providing stimulating material which encourages philosophical thinking and having conversations about those thoughts will ensure that advancement!
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