Page - 91 - in Reflective Cosmopolitanism - Educating towards inclusive communities through Philosophical Enquiry

CHRIsTIAN (MANUAL) 91 Explanation Duration 18 (LG=Large Group, G8=Groups of eight, F=Facilitator, I=Individual) LG: The participants stand up forming a circle. F-LG: The facilitator reads two or three cards with the feelings. After reading each card, everyone will act out the feeling using body lan- guage (all at the same time). Without moving, we see how the others did. We recommend starting with easy feelings, like happiness, sad- ness, boredom. The facilitator asks some of the participants why they represented the feeling that way, and how they typically experience that feeling. This exercise is intended to create a relaxed, fun atmosphere. G8: The large group is divided into three groups (this will depend on the number of participants, but groups of 8 will work well). Each group will choose three of the cards (at random). Then they will have to pre- pare the representation of the three feelings in three different ways: 1) First card with a small theater play (2 or 3 minutes) 2) Second card with a statue, a still photo (made by them using their bodies, all together). 3) Third card, describing it with words. Here, they can use analogies or metaphors, but not the word being described. LG: When every group has prepared the three representations, we come back to the large group. Each small group will represent the feelings to the others, following three rounds (one feeling each in each round). The others will have to guess what feeling they are representing. The facilita- tor will ask, and guide a small discussion over how others notice when someone is feeling this, how they guessed the feeling. The facilitator will ask if students use similar techniques of perception when others feel this way, and how others notice when we are feeling this emotion. The length of the exercise can be reduced, e.g., by reducing the number of feelings, or the warm-up. Leading Idea 2: Friendship/Comradeship Humans are, by nature, social beings. Although this does not imply that every individual feels the same need to socialize, we all need to exist socially, and only others can give us that type of existence. Even being ignored or facing a certain intentional indifference (closer to isolation and discrimination) is a form of social existence because it requires that we first recognize the person whom we then ignore. There are many other ways of existing socially both in a positive and in a negative way (it is not unusual to find behavioral patterns under the motto “Better to exist negatively than not to exist at all”). One of the most powerful ways of having a positive social existence is having friends who help us to achieve that positive social significance. It is not usually difficult to agree with the people around us about the necessity of having friends, and we will also agree on some of the main characteristics a person must 10 minutes 10 minutes 30 minutes 18 The given times in this exercise are estimates for a group of 20. Teachers should adapt the time to their class size.