World Philosophy Day

Today, the third Thursday in November, has been World Philosophy Day - and with it being 20th November is has also been Universal Children's Day - a day to highlight that November 20, 1989: The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Negotiated by adult citizens around the globe, the UNCRC guarantees children civil and political as well as economic, social, and cultural rights.

We have celebrated at Filosofiska...

Yesterday we decided with the children to have a slightly mad day... to not do things like we usually do... to challenge the everyday norms - like clothes and how we eat... So we came to preschool a little different... for instance I wore a nappy/diaper on my head, which of course made the children laugh A LOT.

In the morning we had a philosophical dialogue about children's rights... the children were given the opportunity to tell us what they thought children's rights should be... and we explored many of these ideas... here are the rights listed (and not wrapped up in the full philosophical dialogue where these rights were talked about TOGETHER)

here is the translation....
Children have the right
to get air
to go out and breath and to go in again
to play
to if you don't have a mummy and daddy, like Pippi Longstocking, then you get to do what you want
to eat healthy stuff sometimes/to eat well
to laugh
to be sad
to have fun
to go to preschool
to rest
to listen to each other/to be listened to
to run
to be kind to each other, even to people you don't know/to have kind people around you
to look at fishes
to dress up as a princess, castle, skeleton or spiderweb
all children have the right to be a girl (discussion about the right to be who you are)
to sledge, ski and snowscooter
to have food
to drink

We then talked to the children about the importance of children's rights for children who are forced to work, who have nowhere to live, who are abused, who don't go to school, who have no name, who don't get to play... we also taled about our sister school in Nepal where we help children who live on the street to get an education, a roof over their head, food in their tummies, any medicine they need and the chance to play and learn. One of the children suggested that we should draw pictures for the children in Nepal - all the children thought this was a good idea and it was decided that they should draw their favourite things... the above photo with the rights written on it, is a picture, by the child who had the idea in the first place - her favourite thing being Elsa from the film Frozen.

We went outside to collect questions from passers-by to put in our question box. Questions that we will think about and wonder about together in our philosophy sessions and then post our ideas in the window for passer's by to read...

 Here are the questions we collected... they include... How can we end all the war? Why is it raining today? I wonder how it will all be for all the children in the future? Why is there money? What is anger? Where does rain come from? Why do children go to preschool? What planet do you live on? When will we respect all the worlds inhabitants? When is it Christmas?

We had talked about those people in the area that begged for money, and how that some of them had children in their home countries that did not have enough food, so that is why they have come to Sweden. The children approached to ask for questions... but there was not enough Swedish on her side or Rumanian on our side to be able to communicate very much... and as the children had no money we deceided to share some of our lunch... hot thick vegetable soup and bread to warm her up. This was received with happiness and thanks, and the children gained the opportunity to learn about generosity and sharing.


We ate our food a little more crazy than usual... our morning snack we ate whilst sitting on the table with our feet on chairs... while for lunch we did not use chairs at all, carrots and pasta was served directly on the well cleaned tables and water was served on plates with straws, the soup we drank from mugs... it was a very positive lunch indeed... and the children either ate with their hands or bent down and ate with their mouth directly from the table... it was fun to try new ways of eating... it was also hard work NOT to put your food on the plate...

There was SO MUCH laughter... can carrots be dangerous if they start woofing? What does the water that the carrots were in taste like... can we drink hummus through a straw... we laughed and laughed until our cheeks and bellies ached.

I am beginning to think the children might just want it to be World Philosophy Day every day... I wonder how they will all reflect upon this tomorrow?