TEXTS FOR PHILOSOPHY FOR KINDERGARTENS
Basic Text for p4k 1
Per Jespersen & Haleh Rezaei
In the adult world, fantasy is the creator of our ability to imagine things. Without fantasy we could not imagine anything. Therefore, imagination is impossible without the creative powers of fantasy. When we imagine things we pick up powers and strengths from fantasy. We can imagine people talking, landscapes, scenarios, performances etc. and we can imagine ourselves in new situations. Without fantasy, imagination would not be there.
But reality is the judge over our imagination. Reality shows us that fantasy has its limits through respect for other people and the situation we are in. Reality and rationality are interconnected: not on the surface, but deep down in the powers of imagination. Thus, there is a red thread from fantasy through imagination to rationality and reality. There would be no reality without fantasy.
As children we are born with fantasy, which is the gate to the rest of our lives. This is where the beginning is in very early childhood, and p4k-stories can strengthen the children’s consciousness of their own fantasy, especially if the teacher makes the children talk about the stories. In this way they grow conscious about subconscious fantasy powers. And in the dialogue, however short it sometimes is, the children learn that they are not alone in this world, and that respect and empathy for other children is crucial for the development of their own fantasy.
Therefore:
Read this story aloud for the kindergarten:
The Rich King
In the afternoon
And they loved to come, because their Grandpa was a good old man, and especially because he had a very thick book on his shelf. In this book there were hundreds of stories, and
This very afternoon they went happily into Grandpa’s room and were met by the sound of his parrot, which he had had for many years. The first thing the parrot said, when they entered the room was “Hello, children”. And if they did not answer the bird would repeat “Hello, children.” So of course they said hello to the parrot.
“Have you had your lunch,” Grandpa asked.
“Oh yes, we want you to read a story for us,”
And the elderly man took the book, sat down in his arm chair, while the children sat down on the floor, longing to hear a new story.
And Grandpa read:
Once upon a time there was a noble king in a very rich country. The king was so rich, that he had a golden ring on each finger, and he demanded that his servants had a ring on each of their fingers, too. That was the way the king was. He liked to show his richness, and he liked to show that his staff was rich as well. But it was not, so they only wore the king’s rings.
It is not easy to be a king, and it is not easy to be rich, either, so the king took a look at his hands every five minutes to see, if the rings were there. If they were not, he would faint, and that is not a good thing. I have tried it myself, and believe me: everything grows black in your head, and that is a terrible thing.
One morning he called for his servants to polish his rings. There would be a distinguished visit on his castle, and the king had to see to it, that his rings would shine all day. So the servants polished and polished, and finally the ten rings shone like the brightest moon shine, and the king was happy and told his servants, that he really appreciated their work, and that he would reward them one day, when he had the time. And it is so nice to get a reward. I have not tried it, but my neighbours have told me, and I do believe them.
An hour later the first carriage drawn by ten horses drove to the stairs of the castle. The king got very nervous, but he had to rush to the door to receive the distinguished guests. He hurried so much, poor king, that he fell over the doorstep. But a distinguished king is fast, so he got up in a short time, and was ready to receive the guests and ordered the servants to open the door.
And the door was opened, and the rich king put up his hands to show the guests that they were royally welcome.
In that very minute he fainted right in front of the distinguished guests. The servants immediately saw the problem: the king had lost one of his rings. They looked and looked, and finally they found it near the doorstep. The guests were a little confused, until they saw the problem. They took to their fingers and felt, that they had all their rings, so they did not have any problem at all. But the rich king was lying on the floor, but as soon as the servants put the golden ring back on his finger, he woke up and was ready to greet his guests. They were shown into the finest room of his castle, and they had a good distinguished talk together.
The rich king was happy, because he had all his rings.
When you cannot show your richness, you cannot be a real king.
“What a funny story,” Rami said.
“Pure fantasy,” the parrot said.
“What is wrong with fantasy,” Ahmed asked.
“It is not reality,” the parrot said.
“There would not be reality, if there were no fantasy,” Ahmed said.
“What a clever boy you are,” grandpa said.
The parrot shook its body and screamed, “I have to think about that.”
“Yes, don’t you see – fantasy is like the brilliance, that comes from the rings,” Ahmed said.
“Oh yes,”
“Oh, I see,” the parrot said. “And without richness you cannot be a human.”
“No,”
Then the parrot fainted, and the children laughed.
Even Grandpa laughed, and it is so wonderful to see an old man laugh.
Manual
Read the story for the children.
After that there are different ways to go:
Make the children make drawings of Grandpa’s book, his house, or the three children coming down the street.
Or make a drawing of the parrot as it is in the story. Let the children make a huge drawing to hang on the wall, make them give the parrot a name and make them say hello to the parrot every day.
Every day could start with, “Good Morning, and hello, parrot.”
Take a “small talk” about having a grandpa.
Questions:
Who reads stories for you? Do you like it? Would you like to learn to read?
Why/why not?
Questions to the story:
What is a king?
Tell the children that in some countries there are still kings.
Have you tried to faint?
How does it feel?
Make the children tell you and try to follow their stories by making new questions.
Would you like to wear ten rings?
Why/why not?
Listen to what the children tell you. You never know, but you are the one to follow up on their statements. Thus, you cannot prepare for such a talk.
Make the children make a small play with the fainting king.
We are told that when you faint, everything gets black in your head.
How can it?
What can make us faint?
Perhaps the children have no answers – then tell them.
What could make you faint?
A surprise?
All this is “small talk”, but it is important that you always take a talk after having heard their story. You cannot know what kind of images will occur in the children’s minds.
When I say the following words, what do you see?
Parrot
King
Grandpa
House
Tower
Sky
Heaven
Etc.
When you start reading these stories aloud you never know what happens in the children’s minds. This is the exciting thing about being together with children. You never know what will happen.
The p4k—question is: fantasy and reality.
These words might be new to the children.
But try:
What is fantasy?
Take a long talk about it, and do listen to each child. They might say things, you have never thought about. Children often do this.
How do we use our fantasy?
Where is it?
How would we be without fantasy?
Listen again and build your questions on the statements.
And then:
What is reality?
If they do not know the word, tell them what it is in your view.
Is it real that we are here?
Is fantasy here, too?
How can both be here?
The clue here is that you introduce new words and new perspectives. And if you have the parrot on the wall every day, a new talk can suddenly occur. This is the secret in p4k: it is always there, and you are the mediator for this.
This manual has not to be followed exactly. Many of the questions are only suggestions to make you and the children familiar with p4k. Being familiar with philosophy as a small child is a good thing. Talk with your children as if you are the first humans in the world talking exactly about this.
Basic Text for p4k 2
Per Jespersen & Haleh Rezaei
The clue question is whether values are something we learn or something we have in our mind from our birth.
In the beginning of our lives we do as people around us do. As very small children we imitate adults. But very often this opens a questioning in our inner I. We are born with a wondering and questioning mind. So the deepest of our minds is a huge and constant questioning. Adults do imitate a lot, although we think that we do things, following our will. Adults can very often not distinguish: Are our behaviours imitations or independent acts? We can grow into some kind of robots; we do not think independently anymore. As adults we have things which we consider values – and things we consider worthless. Where have we learnt this?
I would suggest that we learnt through childhood. The teaching in early childhood should always be aware of the questioning mind we are born with. All teaching ought to remember, what this constant questioning means. Children see adults play roles, and they can very often see through them.
The adult world is a sort of game, in which we do things other people expect us to do. Where is the independence? Where is the innate wondering and questioning? The risk is, that we as adults loose ourselves, and we are left in an emptiness, which children do not have.
Therefore, in the adult world values are built upon habits and dependence on others. Worthlessness is based on this. This is a thing we should avoid for the children in kindergarten. We are there to show the children that values are subjective concepts, which should be kept as the children grow up in order to avoid worthlessness in their lives.
This is a heavy task. So a talk about values is crucial.
Read this story for the children:
The Two Tulips
The three children Fatima, Ahmed, and Rami knocked the door to Grandpa’s house, but nobody opened it.
“Why is Grandpa not there,”
“We want a story,” Rami yelled.
And then they heard something well-known from Grandpa’s house:
“Hello, children,” his parrot screamed.
“Hello, parrot,” the children screamed back. And the door opened, and Grandpa was there. “Do come in,” he said.
After a couple of minutes the children were sitting on the floor, waiting for Grandpa to take his very thick book from his shelf. And he sat down in his chair with the beloved book.
And he read:
There were two tulips, one red and one yellow. The red tulip grew in a rich man’s garden, and the yellow tulip grew in a poor man’s garden. These two tulips talked together, when their owners were in their houses.
“I am a very beautiful tulip,” the red tulip said.
“Why do you think that,” the yellow tulip asked.
“Because the red colour is the most distinguished colour on Earth.”
“How do you know that?”
“My owner has told me. He paid a lot of money for me.”
The yellow tulip thought for a while. Then it said, “My owner found me in the park and took me home to his garden. But anyway, I am beautiful, too.”
“But you are a stolen tulip. It is not nice!”
Then the yellow tulip said, “Don’t you think that we are flowers anyway? You are bought and I am stolen, but we are still flowers.”
“Yes, and what would people do, if there were no flowers in the world? We are both here to make the world more beautiful.”
They both agreed on this, and they came up with an idea. “Perhaps we are more clever than people are,” the yellow flower said.
“That is right. What do we do? Can we tell people that?”
“No,” the yellow tulip answered. “But you and I can try something. Let’s change place.”
“What do you mean?”
“That we jump from the place, where we grow. You jump into my place, and I jump into yours.”
“Good idea. Let’s do it.”
And the two tulips jumped out of the soil simultaneously and changed places. Now the yellow tulip grew in the rich man’s garden, and the red tulip grew in the poor man’s garden.
A moment later the two men came out of their houses to take a look at their gardens. “I have the most beautiful tulip,” the rich man said. “I’ll show you.” And he went to the back garden, and the poor man did the same.
Guess what happened. They could not believe what they saw. The rich man looked at the yellow tulip, and the poor man took a close look at the red tulip. What had happened?
The two men started to talk together, and they had a good time, because they saw, that all tulips of the world are beautiful whatever their colour. And the rich man invited the poor man into his house, and they spent a good time together.
And the tulips in the gardens smiled happily.
“Of course,”
“So what about me,” the parrot screamed.
“You don’t have any money,” Ahmed said.
“Poor me,” the parrot wept.
“No, lucky you,” Rami said. “Money confuses us. You are a happy parrot.”
“Thank you very much,” the parrot said happily.
MANUAL
After the reading there are a lot of questions:
What do you think of this story?
What is the difference between the tulips?
What is the difference between their owners?
Why does the red tulip consider its colour the best?
What kind of colour do you like best?
Why?
Again: Do listen to the children’s answers and build your next questions on their statements.
The yellow tulip has been stolen by its owner.
But the two tulips agree on the fact, that they are both flowers.
Do you agree?
Or is the red tulip of more value because it is not stolen?
Discuss this and do listen carefully to the children.
Can flowers be cleverer than people?
Can a canary?
Can a palm tree?
Why do you think that the tulips decide to change place?
How do their owners react?
What would you have done?
How would the world be without flowers?
Make every child answer.
If you have the possibility to go out and pick a bouquet of flowers, then do it and pick a lot.
Discuss the colours.
Is
The clue in this is to make the children aware of the fact, that their own individuality has its own value.
Without individuality there would be no human world. Therefore, individuality is like the flowers: it makes the human world more beautiful. And we are all here to make the world more beautiful.
Therefore: Do not tell the children that you know better, because you are an adult. You are all on the same wondering level. You are all bearers of the values of nature.
Rami says, that the parrot is happy, because it does not know what money is.
Take a deep discussion about this.
Ask the parrot on the wall and make the children come up with statements, which the parrot might express.
Do not follow this manual word by word. It is meant as an inspiration for you. Do find yourself in this story and make your children find themselves in it.
This is p4k!
Make the children make a drawing of a red and a yellow tulip and hang them up in class.
The discussion can come up again – be always ready for it!!
Basic Text for p4k 3
Beauty
In the classical philosophy aesthetics is one of the concepts. All the classical concepts (aesthetics, ethics, logics, metaphysics) can only exist because of the other concepts. They are interconnected. You cannot have logics without ethics, no logics without aesthetics.
All this means that without beauty, human life cannot exist. Life is a balance between beauty and the opposite concept: ugliness. It is like a coin: you cannot have a coin with only one side. It has to have two in order to exist.
This balance is ruled by the light of spirituality. So when you meet beauty, your mind is balanced and cleansed for negativity. Beauty is the light, beaming from our spiritual depths. It is wonderful to see a beautiful landscape, a beautiful face, a beautiful language, a beautiful song etc.
Beauty is there to keep us alive. And even sadness can be a beautiful feeling, as it tells us who we are, because sadness would not occur if there were no happiness and joy.
Thus, beauty and sadness sometimes belong together, because the beauty can turn the sadness into happiness.
Beauty is a basic mental concept. Sadness and happiness are emotions connected to this concept.
Very often we do not know why we find this and that beautiful, but we all know, that when we meet the beauty, light is shining through our mind.
A human life cannot be lived without beauty.
Read the following story aloud:
The Garden
The three children were already sitting on the floor in Grandpa’s house. They could not see him, but
“And you did not say hello,” the parrot said.
“Oh, hello parrot,” they said in chorus.
“Hello, children! And do not forget anymore.”
“Oh no, we promise that,” Rami said.
Now Grandpa came in. He looked rather sleepy, but took the thick book and sat down in his chair. “Have you been nice to-day,” he asked.
“We are always nice,” Ahmed answered.
“Then listen here.” He opened the beloved book and read:
Long time ago I knew a boy, who had some problems in his life. He was teased in school, and he felt the teachers did not like him so much, although he really worked and did everything he was told.
One day he was sitting alone at home. His parents were at work, so he had to stay home alone, although he did not like it. His best friends lived so far away, so there was nobody to play with.
Therefore, he went to his room to get some paper and colour-pens. Then he went back to the sitting room and put three sheets of paper on the table. He loved to draw, and he loved to let his fantasy play, too
To-day he wanted to draw a tree, as he liked trees. He took the green and brown colour-pen, looked out of the window and into the clear blue sky. He felt so happy – there was nothing as wonderful as a tree and a clear blue sky – oh, so happy he was! What a wonder a colour–pen could do!
And on the paper there was the most beautiful tree, he had ever seen. A brown trunk and green leaves. And he thought: Did this drawing come from my colour-pens, from myself – or?
Then he heard a voice from the tree, “Who are you?”
“And who are you?”
“I have no name,” the voice from behind the tree said.
“How is it to have no name?”
“Strange. Could you give me one?”
“It’s not up to me.”
Then a young boy jumped from the paper into the boy’s place. He sat down at the table, asking, “Can I use your colour-pens?”
“Of course, but I don’t understand where you come from.”
“Neither do I.” He took one of the pencils and drew a picture of a wonderful garden with palm trees, lakes, and swans. It all looked so peaceful. “This is the place, we all come from.”
“Oh, I see. I would like to see this place.”
“You will one day. But you still have things to do here.”
“You look so happy. Are you going back?”
But the boy was gone. There was only the tree on the sheet left on the paper, and the boy had tears in his eyes.
“What a nice story,” Ahmed said.
“And sad,” the parrot said.
“A sad story can be nice, too,”
Then they all saw, that the parrot was weeping. “Life is full of longing,” it said.
“It has to be,” Rami said. “Beauty and longing belong together.”
And now they saw, that Grandpa had fallen asleep with the thick book in his hands. But he smiled so happily in his sleep. Maybe he was dreaming about the wonderful garden.
Manual
Red this story aloud.
What do you think about this story?
Make all children make their statements.
How did the boy feel?
Do you know this feeling?
Why was he teased at school?
Have you tried to be teased?
When he comes home, he is lonesome again.
Why?
Take a deep dialogue about being lonely.
How does it feel?
Can you do something against it?
Do you think that adults can feel lonely?
What can make you lonely?
Make all children answer.
Why did the boy draw a tree?
Do you like trees?
Do you like the blue sky?
Did the boy really draw a tree?
Or was it only a dream?
Make the children draw what they find beautiful and discuss the drawings. Make them tell why they find exactly that beautiful. This can make the children see, that we are not all alike.
Tell them the word BEAUTY and make them try to write it on their drawings.
After that all drawings are hung up on the wall.
How can the boy draw a tree?
Where do his ideas come from?
You can draw, too. So where do your ideas come from?
What happens when the boy has finished his drawing?
Where does the new boy come from?
From the drawing?
From the boy’s fantasy?
Or?
How would it be to have no name?
Would you like that?
How can the new boy suddenly sit at the table?
What does the new boy draw?
Is it Heaven?
Or?
Why does the boy suddenly disappear?
Can things happen without explanation?
Can you give an example?
The parrot thinks the story is sad.
Why?
Have you tried to feel sad?
Give an example.
Make all the children give examples.
Why is there something called sadness?
Can sadness be beautiful?
This discussion can give the children new words and new surprising insight. This is the importance of the improvement of language. Words have to be spoken to be thought and to be read!
P4k can do it.
Basic text for p4k 4
Per Jespersen & Haleh Rezaei
From the time of the classical philosophy, existence has always been a key question. Following the classical philosophy, existence has its roots in metaphysics. Existence is a mirror of the inner spiritual life. If you know your spiritual life, you know yourself and you will be ready for taking the challenges of Life. If you are spiritually confused, you are not able to meet the challenges, Life gives you. This might count for many people and is the reason for inappropriate acts, as we see it all over the world.
Existence is in a way the mirror of eternal being: the purpose of one’s life. The only way to find this is to learn how to find out who you are. To avoid confused populations, we have to change pedagogy from the kindergarten: to find a way which help even small children about their own forces and weaknesses. You cannot live a full life without knowing who you are.
If we as children are not met with this pedagogy, we have to live our lives without knowing our own existence. This is a catastrophe. The light that shines through our lives is there to make us see who we are. Thus, philosophy is an important way. Some adult people in high positions often say, that if they only had known about this, they would not be robots just doing what they are told. There are no perspectives, and a life without perspectives is no life. We cannot feel empathy with each other and do not know how to help other people.
The goal of our lives here on Earth is to know ourselves in order to help others and in order to see that we are one humanity. We are here to help one another.
Lack of the feeling of having an existence is a catastrophe.
Read this story for your children
The Castle
“Here we are,” they yelled back. “Hello, parrot!”
“Hello, children! Do come in!”
And when they came in, Grandpa was already sitting in his arm chair with the thick book open, so they sat down immediately, ready for a new story.
There were two children playing in the sand close to their kindergarten.
“I want to build something pretty.”
“So do I.”
“What can we build?”
“A statue?”
“No, I want to build a whole marvellous castle.”
“Good idea.”
And they started to get a bucket of water to make the sand wet. In a few minutes they started to make a castle out of the sand. It grew taller and taller, and it really looked like a castle.
“How tall do we make it?”
“As tall as we can. And we have to make beautiful windows and a big door, where the king enters his castle.”
They worked and worked, and they both felt, that they were clever architects, who knew exactly what to do. It was in a way wonderful to create something new.
Finally they had to build very tall towers on the top of the castle.
“There has to be two towers.”
“No, six, I think.”
“No, I know, there has to be seven. Let’s get started.”
It was a little more difficult to build so many towers, but they succeeded and looked with pride on their castle. And they smiled to each other.
Then something happened. A king came out of the golden door and invited them in. “Come in, my good children!”
They gazed a little bit. Then they said, “The door is too small for us.”
“No way,” the king said. “Size is only an illusion. Come in.”
And it happened. They could enter the door. The king welcomed them, and when they stepped in, they saw, that everything was so beautiful there. Never had they seen such a beauty. There was a garden with the most wonderful trees. There were fishes in the ponds and there was an eternal peace all over the place.
“Yes,” the king said. “What people make on Earth is a mirror of what there is. Here you can stay forever.
And the two boys were so happy. And the king was happy, too.
“Were there any parrots there,“ the parrot asked.
“Of course,”
“Oh, it’s so good to be a parrot!”
“And it’s good to be children!
MANUAL
This time you can make the children step out to build something in the sand outside. Make them build whatever they like.
When they come back, then make them create a story about what they have built. Do listen to all stories and remember, that not all children are good story tellers, but you can help them by asking, “What could happen with your sand-building?”
Then you can read the story for them again.
Why do you think, that the two boys choose to build a castle?
Have you seen a castle?
Who lives in castles?
Have you been inside a castle?
Make the children make a drawing of the castle from the story – and remember: there are seven towers!
Why did the boys feel so good while they were building?
Do you know that feeling?
Is it so, that when you build in the sand, you dream you are a real and clever adult?
Do you think that a real architect have the same feeling, when his building has been finished?
Is it so, that creating things like buildings, parks, and streets is a way of dreaming?
So perhaps adults are dreamers, too?
What do you think?
Perhaps we cannot live without having dreams.
What do you think?
Some people say, that new things would never occur, if we had no dreams.
Is it so?
Tell the class about your dreams, and ask them to express their dreams. Listen to them, and discuss, however unreal they might be.
It is important for all children to have an opportunity to express their inner dreams. P4k is there to mirror the inner mind of your children.
So even if some of the children express completely unrealistic dreams, then let them do it, and do discuss it with the whole class. This talk improves their language, and they feel accepted for who they are. This is very important, because many children do feel inferiority, because they think, that they are the only children with the mind they have. P4k is there to create a forum, in which the children learn that there are other children with the same feelings and the same dreams. This is a good thing to learn, but this means, that when you as a teacher put your questions, you never know what kind of answers you get. You have to be ready for almost anything, and you cannot prepare a hundred per cent for a p4k-session. This is the most exciting part of p4k, because you learn, too. And you also learn what goes on deep inside in your children.
What happens after the two boys have finished their castle?
How can this happen?
Is it fantasy?
Or a dream the boys have.
How does it look inside the castle?
There was peace everywhere.
What could that mean?
Do you think that peace is everybody’s dream?
Why do you think, that we all long for peace?
Are we born with peace in our minds?
What could disturb this peace?
Can we disturb each other’s peace?
Do you think that the boys stay in the castle forever?
The story does not tell us, so what do you think?
How can we be a mirror of everything?
What does it mean?
Can we be a mirror of each other?
If we are not a mirror, we are completely alone, and that would be a terrible thing. Try to make the children see, that we are dependent on each other. Discuss with the children, how it would be, if we were totally alone in this world.
Have you tried to feel lonesome?
How does it feel?
Would it be a comfort to think, that even when you feel lonesome, you are still a mirror of something eternal. Maybe the lonesomeness will disappear, because we add a perspective: the mirror.
Again: you do not have to follow the manual step by step. Be open to your class, because the dialogue never follows the manual. The best way for you is to read it through the day before, and do not bring it with you except for the inner inspiration it can give you.
Basic Text for p4k
Haleh Rezaei & Per Jespersen
Nobody can live a human life without values. Life would not be life without values. But many of our values are hidden for adults. Or we consider them granted. But they are not. We have to praise them, as they are meant for us to make us live mentally rich lives.
There are so many values, such as love, friendship, empathy, sympathy, happiness, beauty, the holy light, or to be alive. What a wonder!
But values do not come by themselves. You have to be ready for them and ready to receive them with gratitude and humbleness.
One of the values is difference. We are all different, and many adults see this as a trouble. But if we were all alike, there would be no humanity. All humanity is built upon diversity as Nature is. All the animals, plants, and trees could not exist without the biological diversity. This is also the way it is with mankind.
There are many cultures with different roots, and this is a gift for all of us. The different cultures and different ways of living are mirrors of the humanistic diversity and the different thoughts and emotions we have are mirrors of this divine diversity, enlightened by the divine light.
Knowing about this difference between us makes it possible for us to understand, what is going on in other people. We might wear the same clothes, but behind the clothes we are divinely different.
This difference is the bearer of all cultures. Therefore, difference is a value we could not live without.
From early childhood we have to learn to find out, who we are compared to this heavenly difference. Without this there would be no science, no pedagogy, and no philosophy.
So the main column of mankind is divine difference.
Read the following story aloud for the kindergarten:
The Butterflies
The three children were close to the door to Grandpa’s house, as the parrot started screaming, ”Hello children!”
“Hello, parrot,” they screamed back and went into the house. They saw that the beloved thick book was lying on the floor, so they wondered a little.
Then Grandpa said, “Which story do you want?”
“Number fifteen,”
“Oh yes, clever children,” Grandpa answered and took the book and sat down in his chair, finding story number fifteen. The children sat down on the floor, waiting for his words.
There were two butterflies in a poor man’s garden. They loved to be there, because there were so many flowers. They enjoyed flying together, helping each other to find the best flowers.
One day they got very afraid. They saw that there was another butterfly on their favourite flower. It had another colour, which they had never seen before. They had always believed that all butterflies were like they were, so they were speechless and dared not fly to their favourite flowers.
“How can a butterfly have that colour?”
“It must be sick or something.”
“Can we ask?”
“It is a very impolite thing to do.”
They hesitated for a moment. But then they saw the unknown butterfly again.
“Hello,” it said.
“Welcome in our garden.”
“I have come to invite you to my garden.”
“Oh, where is that?”
“Not far from here. Just follow me.”
They were a little nervous, but dared to fly with the new butterfly, anyway.
They were extremely nervous. Was there something wrong with the butterfly? It seemed to break all rules.
Then they saw a strange garden with flowers they had never seen before. And they saw butterflies, which looked in quite a different way. They really wondered. They had always believed that all butterflies were alike.
But they were invited into the garden by hundreds of butterflies, and they were all different. “How can the world be so different?”
“I have not the slightest idea. I am astonished!”
Then they were taken to the butterfly-emperor of this particular garden, and they tried to show their best colours of their wings. And the emperor said, “If all butterflies were alike, none of us could live here. We are only capable of living because of the difference between us. This is butterfly-wisdom. Let’s have a ball here in my hall!!”
And all the butterflies from the world came, and they were all beautiful in their own way.
“Is it the same for parrots,” the parrot screamed.
“Yes,”
“I do not understand that,” the parrot said.
“But we have got cleverer. Thank you, Grandpa!”
Manual
Have you seen butterflies?
Why do they fly from flower to flower?
What is the problem for the two butterflies?
Why did they believe that all butterflies had the same colours as they have?
Is it the same with us: Do we believe everything is like we see it?
How come?
So we have to learn that other people live in another way than we do. Is it so?
Is that why we go to school?
Why do people not live in the same way all over the world?
Make every child try to give an answer.
And do listen to them without correcting the answers.
How do the two butterflies react when they see the new butterflies again?
Would you have done the same?
The two butterflies are invited into another garden.
Why are they so nervous?
Would you be nervous, if you got an invitation to an unknown place?
What surprises the two butterflies in the other garden?
Would it surprise you, too?
Imagine, to see so many different people!
Would you get nervous?
What is the butterfly emperor telling the butterflies?
We can only live because we are different.
What do you think?
Make all children give an answer.
How would it feel if we were all alike in this kindergarten?
What would you think?
Take a deep discussion about this.
Take a look around the class here.
Can you see the difference between us?
Is it good so?
Or do you not like it?
Take a deep discussion on this subject. It is important that the children see, that difference is a value. If we were all alike, there would be nothing to talk about, no ideas to exchange, and we could not even feel happiness.
This is the clue of it, but it is your task to put the questions in a way that helps the children finding their own answers themselves. It is a mental process which your way of questioning starts. This is the best way to learn: to get help to find the right answers and questions. These will stay in the children’s minds forever. In this way teaching is a way of art!!
Philosophy connects people all over the world, because philosophy recognises the valuable difference between us.
Make the whole class make drawings of beautiful butterflies. Make them use all their fantasy. And look: they are all different.
Make a short dance while you sing: “Happy we, because we’re different.”
You can be sure: Your children will never forget it!
Basic text for p4k 6
Per Jespersen & Haleh Rezaei
Perhaps there is a hidden connection between memory and history. Some people believe that whatever the many people, who have lived before us, have been thinking, is still there. All the thoughts, all the wondering, all the emotions from the history of mankind are in us subconsciously. When we all of a sudden understand something, it is because of the hidden knowledge we have. But we do not know, but this subconscious knowledge is the tool for learning and the inspiration for learning.
Three hundred years ago a famous author said, that all possible stories have been written, but as time changes, we have to give the old patterns of stories a new clothing, so they can be understood in new times.
Perhaps he was right. What we are doing in these modern times is retelling old stories. This counts for Arabian Nights, Hans Christian Andersen’s tales, Shakespeare’s plays, and the story about Harry Potter.
Nevertheless new inventions are made, but they always build on old thoughts. Even genetics has its origin in ancient
So the children you have in your kindergarten are mirrors of history. This is why p4k is so important, because it goes directly towards the subconscious of the children, so they reasonably often give answers, they did not know they had in their heads. So even a story, which seems complicated, lightens something in the children.
The following story seems to be too difficult for kindergarten children, but read it anyway:
The Two Trees
One afternoon
Even the parrot was sleeping, but when
“At home.” Ahmed turned around and tried to wake up Grandpa, as he discovered, that he was sleeping with the thick book in his hands.
“Look,” Rami said. “He has his finger where a new story begins.”
The children woke him up, and he deeply excused that he had fallen asleep.
The children sat down on the floor, while Ahmed said, “We are ready for a new story. But tell us, where you have got that book.”
“Oh, I bought it at a market in town. I had never seen it before, and it looked interesting. These stories are very old.”
“But we are not. We are only small children,”
And Grandpa opened the book and the children listened to his beautiful voice.
There were two trees in a huge forest. They grew near a meadow, and every morning there were thousands of insects flickering over the small lakes in the fog.
Those two trees happened to be the oldest and the youngest tree in the big forest, so the old tree, which was hundreds of years old, had to explain a lot of things every day to the young tree, which was only ten years old. It had a lot of questions, and many things happened, which the young tree did not understand.
This very morning there was no fog over the meadow, and the young tree had to ask, “Where has the fog gone?”
“I don’t know.”
“I thought that you knew everything,” the young tree said. “There must be an explanation.”
“There is not an explanation to everything in this world,” the old tree said. “I have grown here for three hundred years, so I should know.”
“Maybe you have forgotten.”
“No way. I don’t forget things. During these many years I have seen kings and princesses and queens and lords coming by. In the beginning I found it interesting, and all these persons grew into my memory and stayed there. The history of this forest dwells in me. I have talked to the owner of this forest, to the forester, and to the workers. They have told me so much.”
“Then you must know everything,” the young tree said.
“I thought so, until two small children came by. They played with a ball close to me, and I did enjoy it. Then they sat down near me, and they gave me so many questions, which I could not answer, so I kept my mouth shut.”
“Did the children hurt you?”
“Not at all. But they said things, which made me wonder. They had learnt something in school about the old days, and I recognized it all. How could I know? Now I know. There is a pattern in every living creature, a pattern that repeats itself in every new born living creature. The children had learnt history, but it was all in my mind. I knew on beforehand.”
“So tell us your secret.”
“History mirrors itself in our memory, which is part of history. Everything mankind has been thinking or feeling since the very beginning is in our mind from birth. That is why learning is recognizing. From the very beginning everything was as it should be, and it was good so. You are only a young tree, but you know more than you think. History and Creation is in you, and this brings you happiness.”
“I am so young, so perhaps I don’t understand all that,” the young tree said.
Then they heard a weak noise from the forest. What was that?
Now they both saw a transparent fairy fly over the meadow. Oh, it was so beautiful! It flew close to the old tree and gave it a kiss.
“I want a kiss, too,” the young tree said.
And the fairy gave the young tree a kiss, whispering, “This will make you live for hundreds of years.”
And the two trees could not help weeping.
“What about me,” the parrot said. “I want a kiss, too.”
“There are no fairies here,”
“Then I’ll do it,” Grandpa said and kissed the parrot, which he had had his whole lifetime.
“Then I will get old,” the parrot said happily.
“Oh yes,” Grandpa said. “You got an eternal kiss.”
Manual
It might be a rather difficult story to understand, but even small children always pick up something, which we did not expect. But you can read it twice, or you can read it once, make the children make drawings of what they remember, and then read the story again.
Example.
One child has made a drawing of the old tree, and another of the young tree. Praise these drawings and show them for the children and ask:
Where is the old tree growing?
Have you been in a forest?
How was it? Have you been on a meadow?
How was it?
Show the drawing of the old tree and take the young tree, too.
What are they talking about?
Does the old tree know more than the young tree?
How come?
What does the young tree ask?
Who answers?
Make a small play: one child is the old tree and one the young tree.
Try to do as the trees in the story do.
Praise the children, and make the others try, if they want to.
If there is a tree near your kindergarten, go out there and watch it.
What do you think the tree is thinking right now?
Make the fantasy play, and do not interfere, if the children can go on by themselves.
Go back to your room and ask the children to draw the fairy.
Followed by these questions:
Do fairies exist?
Make all children answer.
What would you talk to a fairy about if you knew one?
Make one of the children be a fairy coming flying in the door.
See what happens!
Now we have made a game out of this, and the children might have had a good time.
It is time for reading the story again.
Any questions?
Anything you do not understand?
And the trick of pedagogy is the following:
Children, there is something I do not understand!
The children might answer: tell us!
Yes. I do not understand what a memory is.
Make them tell you.
Clever children!!
Then tell me what you have in your memory!
Do you remember the story now?
Is it in your memory?
This can take most of the day, and the children might tell their parents, what a wonderful day they have had. And you can be quite sure, that you have enlightened something precious in their minds.
Basic Text for p4k 7
Haleh Rezaei & Per Jespersen
In the adult life we often feel like we are not good enough. We see people around us, probably doing things better, than we do. And we get the thought: “I’m not good enough”, “I’m worth nothing”, “My life is a mess.” We all know that feeling.
But sometimes we meet people, who mirror us, and who can make the light shine through our souls. And this light overshines the darkness, which grasped us. Life is a balance between light and darkness. Darkness tries to take the power, but it is not as strong as the divine light, which are for all of us. This light is shining constantly through our minds, and it is up to us to grasp it. The meaning of life dwells in the light, which is everywhere from space to the small hut.
Therefore, every single child receives this light, which polishes the golden stone in their minds: This means that p4k is there to help children comprehend the values they have from birth. If we only teach in a technical way, the children might not find what is mirrored in them. They do not know what kind of values and memory they have, if we do not create an atmosphere, in which all children can unfold themselves.
This means, that while doing p4k the teacher is a mediator and not a professional person. This is so important. One of the ways you can be a mediator is to read stories for kindergarten children and open a discussion upon the themes in the story.
Read this story for the children:
The Two balls
When the children came to Grandpa’s house, he was already standing in the doorway with the thick book in his hands. “Are you ready?”
“We are always ready to listen to your stories.”
“Let’s sit outside then. In the divine light.”
And Grandpa started his reading:
There were two balls, who belonged to a kindergarten. They just loved to be played with by the children, but when the class was in their room, because they were going to take their lunch, the two balls had a heavy discussion.
“I am the most beautiful ball, because I am red.”
“So what about me? I am yellow – like many flowers.”
“Yellow is nothing. Every ball can be that. Being red is something special and unique, and you know that, don’t you?”
“No. I belong to a family, where all are yellow, and it is a very special thing.”
“Don’t you know that The King of Balls is red? He is the biggest, the most precious, and the most distinguished. All the kings of balls have always been red. This is a fact, and that is why I am so proud of being red.”
“No,” the yellow ball said. “My uncle is a grand yellow ball. He belongs to a distinguished school, and only the cleverest students may play with him.”
They discussed like this every day, when the children were not there. But as soon as the children came out to play, the two balls seemed to be the best friends.
One afternoon, when the children had gone home, they were alone again, and the discussion went on. They grew angry with another, and people could hear them shout and yell. And close to sunset a boy heard them and decided to go into the garden to listen to the balls. He sat down between them and finally he laughed.
“What is the problem between you two?”
And the red ball answered: “This yellow ball cannot see how beautiful I am. He is proud of being yellow, but he should be embarrassed.”
Then the boy said, “I cannot see the difference.”
“What?”
“No, you are both so good to play with, and that is the important thing. And by the way – your colours have gone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t you see,” the boy said. “It’s dark now, so the colours are not there anymore.”
“I still feel red,” said the red ball.
“And I feel yellow.”
“Don’t you see,” the boy said. “When the light is here, there is a difference between you. The light shows us the differences between us, so that we learn that difference is a good thing. I do not wear the same clothes as the other children here in kindergarten, but we are all children.”
The two balls wondered a little. Maybe this boy was right. Light was only here to show us, how valuable difference is. Darkness is only here to make us relax and sleep and to make us even happier, when the light finally comes again.
“Yes,“ the boy said. “But the light is still in us through the whole night. It stays in our souls always to show us the way.”
“What a clever boy,” the balls said in chorus. “We do not care about our colours anymore. We are just happy to be balls.”
“Oh, you clever balls! I will come down to play with you to-morrow.”
“How can balls be so stupid,” the parrot said.
“They have not quite understood,“
“I never thought about that,” the parrot said.
The children laughed. “So it’s so good that we have Grandpa!”
MANUAL
Do you have a favourite colour?
Make all children discuss.
Why do you like blue?
Why is green your favourite colour?
Make a heavy discussion about this.
Are there colours you do not like?
Which?
Make all children explain why they do not like this special colour.
What about the clothes you are wearing. Do you prefer the clothes because of the colour?
Or?
Can colours make you happy?
Sad?
Curious?
Tell the children, that when it is night and the lamps are switched off in the kindergarten, there are no colours there, because there is no light.
Look at this wall! It’s blue now. As soon as darkness is there, it is not blue anymore. If you sneak in here at night to see, you will not see a blue wall. But: As soon as you switch on the light, the wall is blue.
Is it not strange?
That is the way it is with all colours, because light contains all colours in every beam of it.
Strange is it not?
Any questions?
There could be a lot of them. For example: Am I gone when the light is not there?
Is my favourite red not red in the night time?
Where am I when the darkness is there?
Try to explain from the story: The boy told the balls that the light stays in us all night. The divine light is so strong, that it can survive darkness. We all have this light in us. This light makes us be human, as the light shines through our memory in order that we know who we are, and why we are here.
Why is the red ball so proud of itself?
Has it a reason to be proud?
Make every child give an answer. Discuss!
After that do tell the children that colours are very important for our lives. Without colours we would not recognize the divine light.
Make every child choose his or her favourite colour and make them make a drawing only with this colour.
Hang them up on the wall. Tell the children, that we cannot prefer the same colour all of us. This difference makes the life worth while. Did the boy not say that: The light makes us see, how important the difference between us is.
The ball says, “I feel red.”
Can one feel a colour?
Can we connect colours and emotions?
Blue could be a favourite colour, because many people love the blue sky.
What do you think?
Make a little play:
One child takes on a blue hat, another a red hat.
Make them make a discussion about who is best colourwise.
Making a play is easier for children than for adults, as they often feel more free. So if the other children would like it, let them do it.
Basic Text for p4k 8
Haleh Rezaei & Per Jespersen
From the very beginning of our life, we have memory, history, and experience in our minds in a subconscious way. These concepts are there without our conscious knowing. Therefore, teaching and education has the following goal: to make us discover what we have inside, i.e. who we are. So there are two sides of teaching: to teach certain subjects such as language, mathematics, historical facts. But a presupposition for learning these subjects is that we discover ourselves. The other side of teaching is to create an atmosphere even from kindergarten, where you can make different things, which help children find their basis of life.
One of the basic concepts is to discover our emotions, as they are the basis of all life. A human being cannot live without recognizing the feelings we have. The feelings form our personality, and to try to hide these feelings can be dangerous for us. So in kindergarten, when the children are still small and new to this world, we should make it possible for the teaching to touch all possible emotions. Emotions are something we can share, and it is important to share, because in the very beginning we think that we are the only ones with exactly these feelings. In this way we feel lonesome, until we learn to share.
In the adult life we have intentions: we plan our lives, our work etc. But we can have no intentions without involving spirituality. If we only plan through rationality, we will not succeed. In the early childhood we have to learn, that emotions and intentions have spiritual roots, which means that we are not only here to fulfil ourselves, but to fulfil the heavenly intention.
Read this story:
A Boy and A Girl
When
“Hurry up, children. I’ve found such a good story for you. I can’t wait to read it for you.”
And the children hurried into his room, while the parrot screamed, “Be quiet now, and listen.”
“We will. “ And they sat down in complete silence, listening to Grandpa’s reading.
There were a boy and a girl living as neighbours in the city. The boy has been afraid of mice his whole life time, although he had never seen a single one.
One evening as he was lying in his bed, ready for sleep, he heard a noise from the wall. He was sure it was a mouse. And the noise went on and on, so he called his dad and asked him, “Dad can you hear the mouse, too?”
Dad listened and said, “Sure, it’s a mouse. It lives inside the wall. This is because we live in such an old house with wooden walls.”
“What shall we do? I can’t sleep for this noise. I’m so scared!!”
“I know what to do,” Dad said. “We will put up a trap.” He went out for a minute and came back with a trap, and he told his boy, that he had put some cheese inside. “And the mouse can’t resist it. It will step into the trap, but it can’t get out again. Then I will kill it.”
The small boy lied down again to sleep. The noise had disappeared, so he fell asleep. The next morning he woke up and found out, that Dad had been right. The mouse was in the trap. He called his dad, “Come on, Dad – and take the trap.”
Dad came in and said, “I didn’t know this could happen so fast.“ He took the trap, but then the boy said, “Let me see the mouse first.”
Dad showed him the trap, and the small boy looked through the small wooden bars. And then he said, “How beautiful it is. I didn’t know that.”
“What ?”
“What beautiful eyes. And the mouth! And the fur! I want to have a tame mouse in a cage. I want to have lots of them. In the whole room!”
The small girl who lived next to the small boy had got the corner of her Grandma’s garden, and she was so happy. Grandma had said, that she should take really good care of the garden. She could grow whatever she liked, but Grandma would not tolerate any kind of weed.
So the mall girl grew a lot of beans and peas, and she tried to be so careful about her small garden.
For a week she was ill and could not see to the garden. She really missed it and dreamed about it in her fever. Grandma looked after her, and they both dreamed about her small garden.
Finally the fever had gone, and the small girl said, “I want to rush to my garden to see that everything is in order there. And she got out of bed and went to the garden with Grandma.
Oh my goodness! What did they see? A weed was there. It had grown as big as the biggest beans in this week of fever.
“How terrible,” Grandma said.
The small girl took a close look at the strange plant and saw, that it was a wild rose, ready for blossoming.
“Let’s take it away,” the girl said. “This wild rose plant is disturbing my beans and my peas, and we don’t want that.”
They both walked into house to find a knife to cut it down with, but when they came back, they saw the beautiful flowers on the new plant.
“I’ll cut it down for you, “Grandma said. “You can’t have weed in your garden!”
“Oh no,“ the girl said. “Look at those flowers. They are marvellous!”
“A flower on a plant of weed can’t be marvellous,” Grandma said. “I’ll cut it down.”
“No,” the small girl cried. “Cut the beans and the peas away. I want a garden full of wild roses.”
So you see, you cannot control your intentions, even if you find them ever so rational. I thought so, when I was small. But that is not the way it is. Feelings interfere in your intentions, and it is good so!
MANUAL
The natural first question will be:
What do you think of this story?
Make all children come up with their interpretation.
And then:
What kind of animals do you like?
Make the children discuss, and you can even tell what kind of animals you do not like, and which animals you are directly afraid of.
What kind of animals do you like very much?
Why?
Make the children eagerly tell stories about these animals.
Try to make small groups. One group draws animals, they do not like, and a second group draws animals, which they really like.
Hang all the drawings on the wall and discuss them.
What happens to the small boy?
Make all children tell you, what they found in the story?
Why did the boy change his mind on mice?
Would the same thing have happened to you?
Why/why not?
You might have seen pictures of many animals.
What would happen if you saw them alive?
Would that make you change your feelings for this animal?
If you have a book with pictures of different animals, then show the pictures to the children, and make them eagerly discuss what they see, and do tell them a lot about the countries where the animals live.
Which animals do you not like in this book?
And which animals do you like?
Make all the children answer.
What happens to the small girl, when she discovers the weed in her garden?
What makes her change her mind?
Make all the children answer.
Again: take a book with pictures of all possible plants and flowers of the world. Make the children discuss what they like and what they do not like. Tell about the countries, where these flowers grow. Some of them prefer hot countries, others prefer the coldest north.
Did the small girl change her mind, because she found the rose plant beautiful?
Take a discussion on this.
Tell the children the following:
We all have something in our mind which is called feelings. You can feel happy, you can feel sad, you can feel wicked, you can feel love. What I do not understand is, where these feelings come from. You know feelings, do you not? Well, so do I. Do you understand where they come from? It IS strange, is it not? Even colours can make us feel something. Animals can, as we have heard. It IS strange, is it not? I do not understand where feelings come from and why we have them.
The atmosphere should be there by now, so that you can open up for questions:
Can anybody tell me, where feelings might come from?
Make all children try.
Listen to the suggestions and praise them. If there is a really good statement, the pedagogical trick is to say: I never thought about that! Can you explain further or give examples? And there you go: You have a p4k-discussion!
Do not tell the children, what you mean yourself. They have to find out how they see this themselves. This standpoint is an important p4k way of teaching.
P4k is new to the world, and you might be the first one to do it. People have always been thinking that philosophy is something for adult academics. This is not right. Philosophy is for everybody, and the embryo for philosophy and of course p4k has dwelt in the children since birth, waiting for release.
You are the p4k- releaser!!
Basic text for p4k 9
Haleh Rezaei & Per Jespersen
In kindergarten the children are at the very first step of their development. We all develop ourselves through the whole lifetime, but the first steps decide the richness of the rest of the steps. If something fails in the first step, you will never reach the deep perspectives of this anymore. The first steps concerning language, philosophy, spirituality, and creativity are the pedestals for the rest of the life.
If the first steps, especially concerning philosophy and spirituality, are not fulfilled, you do not have the full perspective for the rest of your life.
As an adult you cannot turn the clock back and start all over again. This is why the work in kindergarten is so crucial, and the responsibility for the teacher is enormous. It demands a spiritual and philosophical insight – and a love for children.
So there should be courses on this subject: p4k. Without these courses many teachers will be lost.
One thing is important: routine is of no help. Every time you have a new group of children, you have to start all over again, because every single child is a child, whom you have never met before. This is the diversity of the human spirit: not two of us are alike. At same time we are all unique.
Meeting a new child is like a fairy tale and an adventure into new perspectives of mankind.
A good idea could be that p4k teachers meet once a week to share experiences in order to deepen their work philosophically and spiritually. This is a heavy task, but we have to remember, that the seven columns of p4k are also the columns of the future of mankind.
Read this story for the children:
The New Toy
Every afternoon the three children Fatima, Rami, and Ahmed were sitting in Grandpa’s room, listening to his reading from the beloved thick book. He has told them that he had bought it at a market in town, and that the stories were very old in their own way.
“Who wrote these stories,” Ahmed asked.
“Nobody knows,” Grandpa answered. “If the stories are old enough, nobody knows who wrote them.”
“Don’t talk so much,” the parrot screamed. “I want a new story, too.”
So they all silenced, ready for listening, and Grandpa took on his old glasses and started:
There was a kindergarten in town. The children liked to go there, especially because it had so many toys. Nothing was better than to play with the different kind of toys. But one morning the teacher came with a happy look in her face.
“I have something new for you.”
“A new book?”
“A friendly man in town came this morning with a huge box, and I did not know what that could be.”
“Have you opened it?”
“No, but you can help me.”
The children rushed to the big box and started to open it. The first thing they saw was old newspapers, then some plastic – and then: “What is that?”
They all looked into the box and saw Lego-bricks in all colours. It looked so fascinating, and in some minutes all the bricks were lying on the whole floor.
“This is something new,” one of the children said. “We can build almost anything with these bricks.”
The teacher looked a little amazed, but she was taking away the old newspapers and the plastic sheets, while the children started to build. They discussed a little what to build, but after some minutes they had built to big feet standing on the floor.
“Do you all know what you are going to build?”
“Yes,” they said in chorus. “We build a man.” And they helped each other. They had the feet, then the legs, the hips, the breast, the arms, and ---.
“What about the head,” one of the children said. “A girl’s head or a boy’s?”
“It has to be a boy,” one of the boys said. ”He has to look very clever, because boys are very clever.” They discussed a little, but it all ended up with a boy’s head with long hair and with thick glasses to make him look even cleverer.
The teacher gazed. “How can you do that?”
“We are good children with a lot of fantasy.”
“I see that. You did a good job. Have you tried it before?”
“No, but these bricks told us how to do it.”
“And everything can be made out of these bricks?”
“Sure. Look here.” They tore the plastic person down and started to build a house. “Here the king lives,” they said.
“Then there should be soldiers outside his castle to protect him.”
Some of the boys took the small bricks and built ten soldiers and put them in front of the entrance to the royal castle. “Does it not look wonderful?”
“Yes,“ the teacher said . “Do you have more bricks left?”
“Oh yes, this friendly man gave us a lot of bricks. We could build a whole army. But let us build some palm trees to make it look nice.”
And they built again and had a really good time. There was no end to the fantasy, and they could build almost anything out of the bricks.
When they had finished, the teacher said, “Let us leave it here for to-morrow.”
“Yes,” the children said. “The king needs some rest. Listen!”
And they heard a snore from the castle.
“See, what I said,” one of the boys said. “Even kings need rest.”
“I would like to have lots of those bricks,” Rami said.
“Me too,” Ahmed said.
“What about me,” the parrot said.
“You could build a new cage for yourself,”
Then Grandpa said. “When I was young those kinds of toys did not exist.”
“Did you not say, that this book was very old?”
“Yes, but every time I open it, the stories are new. I do not know why.”
“We can’t know everything,” the parrot said.
MANUAL
What do you think about this story?
What made the children so happy this morning?
What is so special about these Lego-bricks?
Make all children answer.
What would you have built if you were in this kindergarten?
Make them all come up with suggestions.
If you have these bricks, or other bricks, tell the children, that they are going to build something for them. Put the bricks in a big circle on the floor. Give all children a handful of bricks and tell them: Before we start I tell you, that this circle is a person’s head. When we are very small, there is not so much in the head. But there is something. What could that be?
Make one of the children some with a suggestion. It could be “feelings”, ”hunger”, “anger” “thirst”. Let them put in a brick for each concept. Then you add a concept: “fantasy” and put in a brick with quite another colour.
Then tell them: each year more and more is added to our mind. We get cleverer and cleverer and learn more and more words, and they are all in the mind forever. Everything we see, hear and experience go into this part of the mind. Here you take a big brick and place it in one end of the circle. Tell them: Here everything is put in and stored, so it can be used when you grow up.
Make the children come with new suggestions to the question: What do we learn? What have you learnt the last year?
The children put in new concepts, but they have to tell what it is, before they put a new brick in.
This can take hours and you have more than enough to talk about for the rest of the day.
But you have a very good chance to come close to your children, and every topic can come up. You cannot prepare for such a day, but it can be one of the days, on which p4k is there all the time.
And leave the circle on the floor until next day – and new things will occur. The children will never forget this day: they learn without knowing.
Basic Text for p4k 10
Haleh Rezaei & Per Jespersen
The human development runs through spiritual, emotional, logical, ethical, and metaphysical levels, which step by step grow conscious. To make this consciousness as rich as possible, we use p4k, because philosophy takes its basis in every single child’s own development. The teacher has to be the mediator of this process in a deep respect for each child’s spiritual rhythm. Not two children are alike. Their way of interpreting what they see and hear is the basis of the p4k work we do with them. We are all tools for The Enlightened Intention of Life. In other words: we all feel the Light, but in different ways and in different clothing. Hence the respect for each single child. The goal is to help children to be conscious about, what is going on in them. This consciousness will deepen the spiritual insight, which every child can get, even if they are small. In the young age children are more open to see things in new ways, and this spiritual openness is the golden stone in their inner I, and we are there as teachers to make this stone shine forever. Only in the Light of this stone we can learn our feelings and respect them as part of the intention with our lives. This makes us able to feel empathy and act with empathy.
This is why p4k is so crucial: it has responsibility for the next generation.
Read this story for your class:
The Wise Men
But finally they came, and they saw that even the parrot was weeping.
“I am so happy, that you are here,” Grandpa said. “So you are going to hear a very special story.”
There was an assembly between a lot of wise men from all over the world. The men were sitting in a huge hall with columns of marble and beautiful flowers. They had this assembly once a year in order to make the world better in any way.
Oh, these men were so wise! You could see it in their eyes, and you could hear it in their voices. This was an important assembly, because they all had to talk about something, which they did not understand.
Oh yes, this is right. They were all very wise, but no man is so wise, that he knows everything. So they were a little troubled, because they felt, that it was not nice to utter a word about what they did not know completely. Thus, they were nervous and embarrassed and tried to hide it.
Not a word was said, so the columns began to wonder, what was going on, and the flowers of this special palace grew paler and paler, so they were embarrassed, too.
Then one of the men felt courage enough to get up and say, “We are all here, because we have not comprehended everything. I have not either, but I hope that some of you can help me.”
Nobody dared to utter a word. Until one of the wise men said, “We investigate and investigate, we find new answers, new explanations – but all this raises hundreds of new questions. I feel it will never stop. So, I am asking for an intention.”
Silence again. An embarrassing silence.
Then one man said, “Why is there a moon?”
Silence, until some marvellous music sounded in the magnificent hall.
And they all smiled.
“Why is there a sun?”
Music again.
“Why are there stars?”
And the music was there again. Such beautiful music! I wish I could hear it. Oh, I can. The music is in my head, because I dared to ask a question, although I am not wise at all. Can you hear it, too? It is as if we are all in that hall. This is strange – very strange indeed.
Suddenly the door opened, and two boys came in with a very big box. Oh, they should not disturb these wise men! Not indeed!
But they did. They ran to the floor and opened the box. And will you believe it: it was filled up with Lego-bricks. They took them all out on the floor, and one of the boys said, “What do you see here?”
“A lot of bricks,” the wise men said in chorus.
“Can you not see a house there,” the boy said.
“No, certainly not.”
“But there is a house there,” the other boy said. “Look!” And he built a house out of the bricks. And the men were so surprised that they dared not express it.
Then the other boy said, “Can you see a street here?”
“No.” Oh, they could not se it, but the boys built a street in a couple of minutes. And the surprise was even bigger amongst the wise men.
“Do you see a palm tree there?”
And the boys built two beautiful palm trees.
Then one of the wise men said, “What are you trying to tell us?”
A wise man asking two boys! This is special indeed.
And the boy said, “Do you not see? This is like the world. You cannot see everything at the same time, and you cannot understand everything.” He pointed at the bricks. “The world is new every day. These bricks look like a mess, but out of a mess you can create new things. This is the same with our mind. It’s sometimes a mess, but if the Light shines through it for a little while, we do understand things, but not always through words. It could be music, it could be art, it could be literature. We cannot comprehend everything with words.”
All the wise men smiled, and in a second they were all sitting at the floor building things out of the Lego bricks.
And the flowers got their colour again, and the columns smiled, and the music sounded from everywhere.
Go to children and be wise!
“I am not sure, that I understand this,” the parrot said.
“Oh,”
“And what about me?”
“You are a parrot. You know a lot of parrot things we do not understand.”
“Maybe I do not know that I know it.”
“No,” Ahmed said. “But your mind knows. Clever parrot!!”
“Oh, you make me so happy,” the parrot wept.
MANUAL
Well, this looks like a story, which is too difficult for children.
But nothing is too difficult for children!
Questions: What do you think about this story?
Maybe some of the children will say, that they do not understand. But there will always be some children, who have picked a little of it. And a little is better than nothing, because if you cane make this child say just a few words about the story, all the children have heard it – and therefore understood it.
But you could also help with some questions as a start on a dialogue.
Can a column smile?
Can a flower suddenly grow pale?
Do you think that flowers have feelings?
Have animals?
Plants?
Trees?
The important thing is that you can make the children understand just a little bit of the story.
Make them make some drawings, while you read the story again
Talk about the drawings.
Or:
Take out your Lego bricks, put them on the floor, and ask: Can you see a house there?
If one child says yes, then you respond: Let’s see.
And the child will build it.
Can you see a tree there?
Can you see a lake there?
Can you see a desert there?
Who can come up with new questions?
Can you see ----?
Etc.
Make the fantasy play.
You can choose to use all bricks, or you can choose to fill up the floor again with bricks and leave it to the children to build something new. Give them 10 minutes, and all bricks have to be used. They will enjoy this.
P4k is not for adult students at a university. P4k is for children, and the academic philosophy is only a tool for understanding what is going on in children in order to teach them better and in order to help them find themselves in this complicated world!
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http://p4cp4c.googlepages.com/philosophyforkindergartens
EVERYTHING HERE IS WRITTEN THROUGH LOVE TO ALL CHILDREN OF THE WORLD!!