These sessions may well blend into each other as there is a good deal of overlap with the ideas. For instance, if the discussion in Meet Pencil Person turns towards the distinction between types and individual things then run Pencil Person Meets Pencil Person to help focus this. Introducing Pencil Person Props: four (or eight) pencils, a b...

BACKGROUND This story draws on events in history. The Europeans were not the first to use ‘movable type’, it seems. That happened in China and Korea some centuries earlier, but the Europeans developed moveable type in the 15th century. The main advance was that individual metal letters could be packed next to one another to make p...

THE PROM   A young man named Joe was looking forward to his final week in school. At the end of the week there would be a prom - a huge party where everyone would dress up really smart and dance in the school hall. Joe’s mum bought him a suit and his brother, Seb, showed him how to tie the tie properly. Seb also told him to star...

A two-minute play by Paul Bodin. (Words inside brackets are stage directions only.  They are not meant to be said out loud.) For information on how to use this play in the classroom, take a look at Pete's blog here: https://www.philosophy-foundation.org/blog/dialogues-in-philosophy-with-children   The Science ...

You are going to need the book 'The Selfish Giant' by Oscar Wilde for this session. The children love to play in the giant’s big and beautiful garden, but when he gets angry they all run away. When the giant behaves selfishly the bad weather sets in and doesn’t leave... until one day when things change again. Task Q...

This is the ‘seminar’ session where you will present at least one position (argument) relating to selfhood. Use the Sibelius Model for doing so: in other words, present a stimulus, run a PhiE then look for an opportunity to present an argument. Once the argument has been presented and written up make sure the discussion focuses (so a...

From The If Machine by Peter Worley When doing The Ship of Theseus chapter from The If Machine make the puzzle visual by assembling a model of the ship on the floor with some identical pencils and a piece of paper for the sail. As you explain the process of gradual change replace each pencil with another pencil creating a pile of the discarde...

The Story Sindbad the sailor said: ‘I was born wealthy in the city of Baghdad and wanted for nothing. I spent my wealth as if it were an endless spring without a thought for the future. But one day the spring ran dry and, almost without noticing, I became poor. Whilst I wondered about what to do I recalled some lines of poetry that adv...

Suitability warning: this story also contains an event that must be considered for suitability. At the end of this story Sindbad beats his persecutor to death with a rock. If you deem it not suitable then either omit the story or adapt it (see ‘Adapting to match the register’ on page 40). Better to adapt than to miss out a cracking s...