Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
53
NOVEMBER 1992
54
First, the~ is what I will call the develop- tive is also mythic, its themes - transgression,
men~ narrative. The major psychosocial guilt, the conflict beween the drive for individua-
themes of the story - the transgression of boun- tion and authOrity - are specific to the psycho-
daries, conflict with powerful, authoritative social drama of initiative venus guilt. The luger
adults, and being killed - are also key themes of mythic structure of Pmr Rabbi" includes the nar-
the psychosocial crisis characteristic of the ratives or parts of the narratives of the trial of
roughJy 4 to 6 year old child, whom Erikson has the hero, the encounter with giants, and the indi-
described as p~occupied with finding a creative vidual's transgression of limits which leads to his
balance between individual initiative and the downfall.
guilt aDd fear of annihilation which results from
-going too farI and damaging objetts or relation-
ships.· The brilliantly energetic, ohen compul-
sive >yeM old recognizes him or hendf in Peter, TIiE PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES
that -titde animaJ· whose drive to become his
own person through exploring and mastering the
world is tragically hemmed round by both inner The four narrative levels of the story - the
and outer laws of which he only becomes awan surface narrative of illustrated text, and the de-
through breaJcing them. There are the laws of velopmental, social, and mythic subtexts - pro-
moderation, broken by Peter's gluttony, the laws vide a richly layered context of psychological and
of private property represented by Mr. McGregor social meanings from which to draw philosophi-
and his garden, and the -bw of the jungle· - cal themes, whether ontological, epistemological,
here, with Potter's characteristially oblique ircr or axiological, and to constnJct discussion plus
ny, the law of the garden - rep~sented by Pe- based on them. For example the developmental
ter's father's earlier -accident! subtext, which is about initiative and guilt, in-
Another level of narrative ~tteming I will ca.ll structs us to pay attention to the >year old's
the sodal. It includes economic:, class, and gen- particular approach to the idea of the -good' md
der narratives. Mr. McGregor's garden is a vivid, the ~d.• What is and what is not -laughty,'
coherent analogue for the world beyond the and how do we know when something is 'mis-
young child's home: the world of huge, aU- chief' and when it isn't? Is tbe mouse carrying
powerful, hostile, ambivalent or ~tronizing peas out of the garden doing mischief, or the cat
adults, and of the confusing laws of who can contemplating the goldfish, or the birds, who arc
have what. It embodies perfectly the ordered probably eating seeds? Did the McCregors do
chaos of the economics of sardty, where poten- something ~d· when they killed and ate Peter's
tial allies - other little people - are, like the father? How would the McGregors themselves
mous«; either too intent on their awn survival look at it? What are the criteria for calling some-
needs to pull together, or, like the Qt, would just thing -good.~ What, ror example, is the differ-
as soon eat you too. Only the sparrows, symbolic ence between a 'good. and a ~d· h.ammer? Ice
of both solidarity and transcendence, urge Peter cum cone? Person? Can there be too much of a
towuds freedom. good thing? Can good come out of a bad thing?
Peter is told by his mother not to get into mis- Some things sun out bad and come out good,
chief, but it ia this fundamenully mischievous and some things operate the other way around.
world of -accidents· - of strUCtUral inequity, Can something be both good and bad at the
do~tion, transgression, and the ever-present same time? All of these questions an be instan-
possibility of being eliminated by a more power- tiated with examples from the lives of young
ful player - which be, as a male, must learn to children, and the stories they have to tell of their
mmipulate to his ends. }., a male, Peter must be conflicts, their triumphs, their failures.
-~ugh~ in order to survive, although through The philosophical issues associa ted with the
being naughty, like his father, he may be eaten. werd ·accident· arc also informed by the devel-
As it is, he escapes with.losing his clothes, which opmental subtext. This is a particularly sensitive
are displayed by the oppressor as a deterrent to theme for young children, who tend to see all be-
other challengers of the system. havior, even that of inanimate things, as inten-
Fmally, there is the narrative level which I will tion-laden, and intuitively undentand aU nature
all mythic.. Although the developmental narra-
55
as 'mindful" rather than mechanic.aP Given this and a variety of objects - change as they get
interpretive bias, 'accident' and 'on purpose' older? How do they stay the same?
might have a slightly different twist: Was Peter's The peculiar, whimsical, and suggestive way
father's demise really an accident?6 Was it an ac- in which animals are presented in Peru Rabbir -
cident that Peter lost his coat and shoes? If he in fact they inhabit an anti-world to the human
had been caught, killed, and eaten, would his world, v..fuc:h yet interfaces the latter - also
mother have called it an 'accident'? What kinds raises interesting questions about the similarities
of things are 'on purpose'? Does the sun shine and differences betweeen animals and humans,
on purpose? Do people get angry on purpose? particularly in the areas of thought and language.
Does the doctor hun you with a needle on pur- I have found that children tend to apply a hu-
pose? Issues of causality are not far behind. man thi.nking and talking model to animals until
When two things happen together, when can we quite a late age, which makes for good conversa-
say that one causes the other? tions about the discrepencies which show up
As for the social subtext, the animals in P~rcr when you try to instantiate that. One might ask,
Ral1bit - who comprise everyone except Mr. for example, whether wonns, mts, slugs or tad-
McGregor - are, like children, the 'little people' poles think, plan and talk the way dogs, cats and
in relation to the -adult' world of the garden. rabbits do. If not, what are the differences? The
The young child's drive to be a person in her question of how animals think and intend and
own right is always in the context of the more communicate is related to the classification issue
powerful, sometimes punitive world of adults. oE living versus not living things. What are the
So the animals seem to depend on the human criteria for calling something -alive'? Are the
world, but only illegally, through stealing. This moon, the wind, the ocean, the cora! plant or the
can lead to a discussion plan about what is steal- dandelion seed, or a piece of your skin alive?
ing and what is not. Is the mouse stealing peas? The dramatic difference in behavior between
Are you stealing if you taste a grape in a super- Peter and the -good little bunnies,' Flopsy, Mop-
market? Are you stealing if you or your family sy, and Cottontail, raises gender issues. Although )
are starving and you take food from a supennar- it is never stated that Peters siblings are girls,
k.et? Are you stealing if a big company sends you there are few readen who don't assume it, an im-
something by mistake and you keep it? Mr. pression encouraged by the fact that they dttSS
McGregor seems to feel that the gardm 'belongs like their mother, in red capes. four- to seven-
to' him? What are the criteria for private owner- year"lds ue·ilready keenly aware of the differ-
ship of something? ences between girls and boys, and usuaUy as-
The dark side of the adult-eh.ild relationship is sume genetic causes, an assumption that can be
evoked with ominous power in the encounter be- probed through discussion. If girls and boys'
tweal. Peter and Mr. McGregor, and it raises dressed and kept their hair in the same way,
questions about the authority relation between how, apart from the differences hidden by
childrm and adults. Do you have to do what clothes, could you tell them apan? And the boy/
adults teU you to? What forms the basis of the girl issue is anaJoguous to the animaIlhuman and
authority relationship, and what rights do chil- the ..dult/child issues, in that all three involve
dren have within it~ Then there is the question contrastive pain, in which the relationship be-
of what is the same and what is diffe.n:nt about tween simi.luity and difference is clear in places ,.
adults and children. This question leads to ques- and mlbiguous in othm. This makes for rich
tions about identity across transformations, and possibilities for discussion plans.
perII1Anence and change. Young children are I have just identified only a handful among a
growing physically very fast, and will look very number of possible philosophical thematizations.
diffwm in even three or four yean. What stays Discussion plans could also be built around rules
the same about you and what changes as you and breaking rules, getting lost, danger, adven-
grow? Will you be the same person when you are ture, making mistakes, being afraid, and crying,
grown up? Adults also change their physical ap- to name jUst a few more. Exercises could be con-
pearance as they get older, but in a differmt structed around sentence patterns like the coun-
way. How do other things - animals, plants, terfactual ~t would have been a beautiful thing
to hide in, if it had not had so much water in it';
56
A/fALYTIC T~At.HlNC; • V.I. fl. No. ,
or the ambiguities of meaning in words like ·sor- with symbol systems or -intelligences· ache-
rY in phrases like ·1 am sorry to say that ... ,. or than the linguistic, logical, and personal - i.e..
·time' in ·Mr. McGregor was after him in no spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical' - is emi·
time,' or "'care' in -Peter did not care" nendy suited to the young child's multi-sClsorial
approach to lived experience.
Teachers can tell and act out stories within
INTEGRAnNG THE TEXT WITH stories to introduce or enliven discussions. For
PIDLOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN example, two teachers in cirde might dramatize
METHODS AND MATEJUA1S two • iiccidents,' one of them due to recklessness,
greed, or deviousness, and one not; or two pup-
pets with no obvious sexual or gender character-
Once themes have been idmtified, exercises istics might discuss their bewilderment as to
and discussion plans may be taken from existing whether they are boys or girls.' The young
Philosophy for Children manuals and adapted for child's penona1ized, interactive epistemological
young children, or oew ones may be developed. style calls for all manner of concrete demonstra-
While the philosophical themes involved tend to tion of concepts and relationships, for example
emerge from the narrative patterns of the text, c:xamining reaJ and present animals when dis--
which thinking skills we choose to feature in our cussing the differences between humans and ani-
discussions will depend roughly on the ages and mals, examining ambiguous photographs when
individual characteristics of the chiJdrm in- talking about gmder differences, coordinating a
volved. With a skilled facilitator, children 4-7 can discussion of changing from a child to an adult
work with excitement and rapidly growing skill with growing butterflies in the classroom, and
at making distinctions and connections, classify- bringing in photos &em the family album, and so
;j, ing and categorizing, drawing inferences, predict- 00.• Finiilly, the young child's participation in the
ing consequences, and formulating causal expla- community of inquiry is first centered around
natioo.s. Although they are oot used to the personaJ narrative - around the child's grasp of
)' systematic way in which the community of in- his or her own life as a story which can be re-
quiry practices formulating questions, giving rea- counted, and which acts as a context for making
sons, defining terms, providing instances and il- judgments. So the five-year-old says, not -I think
lustrations, and identifying and wing eiteria, all to be naughty means ...,. bur rather, ·One time,
of these moves are part of normal human lan- when I was home with my mother, and I want-
guage games, and so they have already done ed to play with a toy that my little brother
them at one point or another, either more or less had... ' The teacher heJps young children to a.rtic-
explicitly. It is their new standardization in uJate the higher levels of abstraction which are
group discussion that takes practice. iirready present in the very choice of narrative
Working with four- to seven-year-olds poses content by the child, and in the language games
its own particular problems and opportUnities. already being used to interpret experience.
The young child's love of story and of repetition
are advantages, in that a tat liJce Puu Rabbil can
be read a oumber of times, even before it is ex- CONCLUSION
plored philosophially, to the point where it is
nearly memorized by many children, thus mak-
ing the smtegy of retUrning to the text to check It would seem that at least two characteristics
meaning a n~tural one. That same capacity to be distinguish a philosophic.a..l novel of the sort de-
i.m.mcdiately caught up in the mythic ambience veloped by Upman hom a children's book which
of story makes it easier for young children to ex- is rich in philosophical implications: the philo-
plore the text through acting it out, dramatizing sophical novel very consciously builds themes
it with puppets and musical instruments, or ac- like appearance md reality, the one and the
tion figures, and drawing under its inspiratio~ many, diffen:nces of kind iind of degree, etc. into
which are ways of familiarizing themselves di- its narrative, as well as many pretexts for the
rectlyand non-d.iscursively with the narrative making of generic, mediating, and cu1min.ating
patte11'15 mentioned above. Doing philosophy judgmmts. IO In addition, its plot and chalacters
57
N"OVEMBER. 1992
invariably model the operation and the develop- world are pn:scnt in many children's books, and
ment of the community of inquiry. As such they offer interesting challenges for philosophical
are special texts designed for a direct, pedagogical thematization.
approach to the philosphical themes they con- 8. For a disC\lssion of the six -intelligences,· see
Howard Gardner, Nl1.mtS of Mil'lli (Basic Books,
tain. What they share with children's books like
1983). .
Pelt' Rabbi' is that they both depend on fictional 9. An excellent guide to presenting such skits,
narrative, with the ambiguities and complexities dramatlutions, and ·story problems- to young
created by its multiple subtexts, to communicate children, with a we.aJth of concrete examples, is
concepts. It is through working with the phllosc>- found in Carolyn Pope Edwards, Pro"""i", MorAl
phy embedded at a very accessible level in the ~vtloprru,u irs Y''''"g Qi/Jrc".. C't4tivt A,pTfuuNs
pedagogical novels that we learn to identify and for 'N CL2SSrocrm (re.achen College Press, 1986).
to find a way of accessing the philosophy embed- 10. For ~ succinct and useful discussion of these three
ded at a deeper level in children's literature. The orders of judgment, see M&tthew Upman,
ni"b"g irs EJ!UUtUm (Un'1btidge University Press,
fact that the latter does not directly model the
community of inquiIy does not, in my view, dis- 1991), pp. 164-173.
qualify it as, in some cases anyway, an appropri-
ate pretext for philosophical discussion. In fact a
very fruitful interaction between the two sons
of texts is possible, given the different approach-
DAvid Ke,.lUdy, Ph.D., teAdJ,u iff Ch,1d ",.d
es they offer to the philosophical material they FAmily Studies, Nortlum MichigA" University,
cany.
MArquette, MichigA" And is Cl'-UIitor of
AnAlytic Tuuhi"g.
Nons )
1. Beatrix Potter, Pctcr &lrbit {Frederick Wune,
1902).
2. This principle is also probably tNCr as in the case
of Bauix Potter, for e.ach major author's work as
a whole - whether Aenold Lobel, Maurice
Sendak, William Steig, Hans Christian Andenen,
Else Holme1und Minarik, etc.
3. The written word rud aloud is different from
both the written word re.ad silently, and the
spoken word of stol)'te1li.ng, or even the written
word dramatiud of the JUy.lt is both a tat and
a speech act. .
4. Characterizations of the -eight ages- of the life
cycle are described in Erik H. Erikson, /~"ti'y .rui
1111 Life Cycle (Norum. 1980 (1959)); md CJUIJ1sooJ
,,"" Soc.ury (Norton, 1963). t-
5. For an iDter~sting d.i.scussioo of this phenomenon,
sec Susan Urey, Cmrce,t1Ull OA"ge i" CJUUiNJoJ
(MIT Press, 1985).
6. "Yow f~thu had an accident there 8 is & good
opportunity for an c:xacise on uying one thing
and ruJ.Iy meaning another, and other forms of
euphemism and exaggeration.
7. The interface is indeed strange. In the illustr.ltlons,
Peter is portrayed like a real rabbit, and he is
treated that way by Mr. McGregor; on the other
hand, McGregor hangs Petets clothes on the
san:crow without a second thought. These sorts
of ambiguities about the human and the wnW
58
Peter Rabbit: Forming Communtties of Inquiry in Early Childhood Clusrooms
Accidents
Was it an accident that Peter's father was killed and eaten by Mr. McGregor?
.. ',
Was it an accident that Peter went to Mr. McGregor's garden?
Was it an accident that Peter lost his coat and shoes?
Did Peter go to Mr. McGregor's garden on purpose?
How can you tell if something is an accident?
( How can you tell if something is OD purpose?
.'
By Accident or 00 Purpose?
The sun comes up It starts raining
The sun comes out A doctor buns someone with a needle
A train wreck You were born
Someone gets angry It gets dark
-~;" ;
.... , ~'.
...... :.~
Stealing
Was Peter stealing from Mr. McGregor?
Was the sparrow stealing?
Was the mouse stealing?
How can you tell when it's stealing?
5 tnll nc or Not?
Getting in a stranger's car and driving it away
Eating a grape in a supermarket
Finding a dollar on the street and keeping it
Find a million dollan on the street and keeping it
Taking food from a store when you are starving
Taking a cookie when you aren't supposed to
Taking a toy from the store
Taking a toy from a baby who doesn't care
. "'0.•.
. ~j.}~~..~~.
~~"
+- ... .:":;'.~.
~ '.
Peter Rabbit: Forming Communities of Inquiry in Early Childhood Classroom.
What Thinks?
Dogs Worms
Cats Radios
Rabbits
Girl or Boy?
Run Sleep
Cry Play with doUs
Laugh Play with trucks
Hit Get in trouble
Getting Lost
Tell a collective story about getting lost
How do you get lost?
How do you get unlost?
What are the different ways of getting lost?
_,.;t".-
~._. "': ~-
.. ..~:. ~~-.:
# - ... :
Peter Rabbit: FormIng Communities of Inquiry in Earty Childhood Classroom;)
What t s Dangerous?
A toaster A whale
A lion A vacuum cl~er
i A fan .
t A bear
f
i A kitchen knife A policeman
A bathtub A car
I A washing machine A bottle of liquor
t A frog
A mosquito
A shark
A dog
A eat
Darkness
)
What Can Make You Afraid?
A movie Award
A song An animal
A picture A penon
~
Whllf or whom tin these he/oil); 10. or who owns thtm? How do you know?
Your parents' car Your street
Your bed The moon
Your hody The ocean
Your dog or cat Your thoughts
Your house
,
I
I care of them?
'. What would the world be like if you were born very big and got smaller as you got
older?
What Talks?
A sparrow Bees
A cat Slugs
A mouse Tadpoles
A cabbage Trees
Ants Televisions