Page - 37 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

TINA AND AMIR (MANUAL) 37 Leading idea 3: Perceiving differences A difference is the quality that makes one person or thing unlike another. So it is important to recognize differences, even if it is difficult - for example, if you see identical twins. But what makes each human being different are also their thoughts, emotions and language. It is essential to verbalize what makes oneself different from another person. It would be much more difficult if everything was alike: human beings, animals, hous- es… no one could be distinguished from another. It is important to be able to tell things apart, to tell when they are different. You can also refer to the manual to Ella, episode 4, leading idea 6, and Christian, episode 6. Discussion Plan: Perceiving differences 1. How can we perceive differences? 2. Can we always do so? 3. If two things are not the same, must they be different? 4. What is your way to distinguish yourself from others? What is different? Exercise: Differences Bring two things that look alike and then find out what is different about each pair of things. 1. 2 shoes 2. 2 socks 3. 2 pencils 4. 2 eggs 5. 2 mobile phones 6. 2 USB sticks Exercise: Same and different meaning Two children go together and build a group. Each group tries to find 10 words that have the same meaning (for example: dad – daddy, mum- mother) and try to find 10 words that are the same but have different meanings (sweet – for example: She is such a sweet girl. The tea is too sweet. Mouse – for example: the mouse – the animal, the mouse – for the computer) Activity: Similarities - Discover what you have in common Divide the children in your class into small groups and encourage them to discover characteristics they have in common (e.g. interests, hobbies, culture, appearance, tastes). Ask each group to give themselves a name based on the discovered qualities and then to introduce the characteristics and explain their names to the others.