Philosophy - what is precious?

This week we used philosophy to start us off on our concept of systems for the term. I was aiming to get children to think about systems for discussion, and a philosophical inquiry is a great place to start. We discussed the rules of our inquiry - one person at a time talking, listen and consider others' responses, allow others to have their own opinions, discuss respectfully (no put-downs, question the idea not the person).
And along the way we had a wonderful inquiry into what we think is precious. This all stemmed from a comment I heard from someone at school last week - 'Look after water, it's precious right now'.
That got me thinking - is something precious only when it is scarce? Are some things more precious to some than others?
First we sorted items / statements into what we thought was precious / not precious, and children had to justify their decision. This encourages deeper thinking, to have to give a reason. We then discussed in groups which items we would change and why. We thought about what was the most precious thing to each of us - remembering that different people have different ideas and that's ok.

We looked at the Greek myth of King Midas and thought about what he thought was precious, and when he changed his mind.

We looked at taonga - the Maori concept of treasure or something precious.

We discussed whether water is more precious now than it usually is, and why this might or might not be.




There was a lot of great respectful discussion that hopefully opened up thinking and got children to see that there are similarities and differences in the way we all think.

Here are some quotes on precious - do you agree or disagree...and why?

Welcome to 2020!

A very warm welcome (in fact currently 31 degrees warm in my classroom!) back to Quest for 2020. I look forward to working with all the students again, learning and exploring ideas together.

This term we start by looking at the concept of systems - ideas like ecosystems, communication systems, hierarchies, systems for learning etc come to mind, but I will also be asking children for their input along the way.

Quest will start in week 4 this term (Tuesday 25th Feb and Wednesday 26th Feb). Below is the weekly timetable. There may be some changes along the way due to clashes with swimming, sports, class activities etc, but I will try to remember to let you know if we are going to change.

See you soon!

Debbie