Philosophy - P4C

In philosophy this week our stimulus was Micheal Jackson's Earth Song.  The children considered the environmental issues and discussed the concepts raised by the lyrics.  They voiced their opinions maturely and were able to justify their thoughts.  After talking through ideas in pairs and fours, I asked them to come up with a question that had been raised by the song.  Most children came up with questions about forgiveness - "Why have we damaged and made mistakes to the earth?", "Why is it hard to forgive?", "What does forgiveness really mean?" - among others. After voting, the children decided our philosophical enquiry would focus on the question -

"How can we forgive someone if they kill someone we love?"  

Be assured that philosophical discussions are carried out sensitively with children being reminded of the rules of safe enquiry, such as listening to each other without judging, not laughing at other people's opinion, disagreeing with an opinion respectfully - not with the person talking, not gossiping about what others say during philosophy.