We hope you had a good Easter break. We’re sending this when most schools are still off, ready for you to use as soon as you’re back.
Is Easter getting eggcessive?
Last week, BBC News ran a story titled “Tiramisu hot cross buns, doughnut eggs: Have Easter treats gone too far?”
One of the safest bets when facilitating philosophy is to make sure the question sits squarely in the kids’ backyard (see our previous bulletin on the principle of “starting in the world of the child”). We figured that with most coming back to school slightly sugared up, now would be a good time to explore Easter eggs and connected concepts.
Activity Idea
Regular P4C ‘ers may be familiar with Phil Cam’s Question Quadrant where children categorise questions created by a stimulus. For this activity, draw out a quadrant graph of your own with axes labelled as below:
For any tasty treats that have become popular in your country, get one student to place them somewhere in the Quadrant graph. All of these judgments are to some degree a matter of taste so some compromise might be needed as others make the case for other locations in the quadrants – or you can just let the disagreements stand.
You might spend some time exploring the subtle differences between each quadrant. For example, it might be possible to find something deliciously yummy, but for any number of reasons think It has no place on supermarket shelves. Conversely, is it possible to find something yuck but still want to buy it? And of course, there may be things that challenge the very axes of the quadrant, being simultaneously yuck and yum, or “ban it” and “take my money!”
Some of the treats mentioned in the article, and found in my local supermarket include:
-Caramel Fudge Hot Cross Buns
-Chocolate doughnut flavoured eggs
-Hot cross tarts
-Biscoff Cadbury’s creme eggs
-Cheaster Eggs to pair with crackers and chutney
-Custard cream filled egg
-Almond croissant egg
Or these examples might lead you to some interesting philosophical territory:
-Easter eggs themed using children’s TV characters to increase pester power
-An easter egg made with chilli to make it hotter than the hottest curry
-The KitKat Caramel Cookie Collision Incredible Egg (512.7g) leads in total calories per egg, packing in 2,691 kcal, more than an adult needs for a whole day.
-Caramel and Toffee Feuilletine (below)
-Betty’s Grande Easter Egg costing £395
Eggstra questions
Are there any enjoyable things that can’t be taken to eggcessive levels? Something where you can’t “have too much of a good thing”? When does the search for the new go too far?
The article tells us how chocolate is 15% more expensive than a year ago, and many are feeling the’ cost of living crisis. Do manufacturers have a responsibility to keep Easter treats affordable for all?
What’s more important, for manufacturers to uphold traditions, or to find new innovations?
Nick Rocklif, in charge of innovation for a company who bake around 100 million hot cross-buns a year, says “it’s your imagination, that’s the only limitation”. Given rising costs, and increasing obesity levels, should there be limitations on what manufacturers can create for Easter?
What are we up to?
Jason will be doing the opening session at the Sophia Network meeting, the annual gathering of the European P4C clan, which this year is in Prague on the 30th to 31st May. It’s a terrific opportunity to get together with leading P4Cers from around Europe and unlike a conference, we are all together for the whole two days – no parallel sessions, one shared experience. It’s very convivial as well as great CPD, and the Reduta jazz club where Bill Clinton played sax with Vaclav Havel is only minutes away… the event fee and flights combined will cost less than a normal day of CPD, so twist your headteacher’s arm and come along!
We both returned to Caterham school last week to deliver a day of philosophy to Year 7 with visitors from The Hawthorns School joining in. We explored all manner of concepts that have baffled thinkers for centuries, but baked in accessible and humorous provocations.
If a “responsible adult” farts in class should they confess?
Is pushing someone you dislike down an open lift-shaft worse than letting them fall?
If the police inadvertently lock a bunch of burglars inside the house they were burgling, who is most responsible for the burglars’ safety?
All inspired by true stories!
Working with students is always a delight, but what made it all the more rewarding was the email we received from the teacher the next day.
Dear Tom,
Thank you so much for yesterday. The pupils had a fantastic day and I know that Hawthorns had a great time too. You really are so great to work with- the pupils respond so well to you, and it is great that you can be so adaptive to our day and also their engagement and responses. We would definitely be interested in future sessions.
Thanks to you and Jason for your enthusiasm and fabulous pupil management!
Running days like this-where we can work with either a whole cohort, or a selected class, is what we love most, and we have some slots available for summer term.
To read more about what the days can involve, and what teachers say about them, follow this link.