Philosophy, Children, and the Ageless Power of Wonder | Thomas Jackson

Warning, I work a lot with children. That's not a warning, that's a fun thing that I get to do. And one of the things that I do is I like to make noises. And I like to make sound effects. So, if all of a sudden I go, don't worry, because I have a small vocabulary. And it really helps. Another one I like to do is, and then you're probably wondering, I also do juggled duck. Yes, I also do juggled duck. And I wish I had a picture of your expressions when I did that, because it's almost identical to kindergartners. Okay, I was really glad that you guys came up with paper. Because I have a smartphone and I don't ever think I'll be smart enough to use it. You know, I got one because I needed to text with my son and he never answers the phone. So I thought, what am I gonna do, you know? So I thought, well, I'm gonna use something between, I don't know, a PowerPoint and something else. Okay, so, and I only have two slides. And they said if I push one of these buttons, that's gonna change. Whatever way I point it? Right, okay, here we go. That's where my smartphone is, too. My son says, oh, there it is, cool, all right. So this, the first part, the long name to pronounce, that's a story I'd love to tell you another time. It's sort of why I believe in miracles. Behind that name is a $1.25 million grant that we got for the work that I've been doing for 30 years. The other one, home of P4C Hawaii, I'm gonna be using this expression P4C. Any of you folks heard that expression? Let's see, okay, good, there are a few folks out there. All right, so the P, stands for philosophy, or as we put it with the kids, philosophy. And the other one stands for C, or children. And so you're gonna be hearing P4C quite a bit. Now my other slide, oh. Oh, I brought it back, okay. This, I love this, I really love this. And my title for this is, hmm, one of my subtitles for this is, it's a wonder moment. It's a wonder moment between two people. And a wonder moment where it's as though the universe is momentarily suspended. Now, I have to tell you what happened to me this morning, because I have been working really hard as we all have. We've shared our anxieties before. Draft after draft after draft. Here's this fantastic opportunity. So last night when I fell asleep, I was on draft number 19. Yeah, and I had some very good coaching, thank goodness. So it was draft number 19, I thought, it still doesn't work, it's still not there. And I just exhausted and fell asleep. And about three hours later, I woke up. And I did some scribbling. When I got up this morning, I thought, okay, now what am I gonna do, what am I gonna say? And first that slide came to mind. And then I all of a sudden, in my mind I hear, this one's for Gabby, this one's for Gabby. And if you know Israel, and you know the facing future, that's the way over the rainbow. And it's a wonderful world starts out. And it still gives me chicken skin every time I hear it, this one's for Gabby. And for folks who don't know who Gabby is, I'm figuring it's Gabby Pahinui, it's Gabby Pahinui. And then I hear, and I've got this, I thought if I'd asked you guys sooner, you maybe could have played it. Because there's this place where it says, and somewhere over the rainbow, the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. And then I hear babies cry, and I'm hearing this. And it couldn't have lasted more than a couple of seconds, but it was just like that. I watched them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll ever know. And I think to myself, so then I'm thinking about, and I've named her Tiana. And I'm thinking about the two of us to there, and we're both, we didn't know the picture was taken. And we're both deep in, hmm. And I started thinking about what a mess the world's in. What an awful mess. And you know, you look at the timelines, but you hear about the things that are not working. And I think about her, and as I look into her eyes, I'm thinking, but you know what, Tiana? It's gonna be okay. Because we're gonna figure this out together. The work that I get to do with young children, every time I come away, I am so filled with optimism and hope. And when I say, we're gonna figure this out together, I mean, not me. Part of my message today is how desperately we need those very young children and those very young minds. So then I finally hear this, like, well, I'm gonna do that again. No. So then I hear this thing that says, don't be nervous, because for the kids. So I'm gonna try not to be nervous. I have a question for you guys. Oh, I know, the other thing is that she asked me, how are you gonna do that? And I said, okay, I'm gonna share with you adults here today all that I've learned from you folks about doing P4C together. And I'm gonna do that to the best of my ability by using your voices. Not mine, I don't wanna tell you about it. I'm gonna use their voices. And I told her, you know what, I'm gonna take a video. And when we're done, we'll sit down together and watch, and you can tell me how good a job I did. Okay, now, question. How many of you folks were a child at one point in your life? Right on, I've never had a hand not go up. It's very encouraging. And now, maybe a tougher one. How many of you folks would still say, you got a child in there somewhere, still? Oh, see, see? So, how many of you guys wondered as a child? Oh, look at that, you should turn around and have a look. You know, that's very encouraging. How many of you still wonder? Okay, see? Well, I wanna introduce the idea of two kinds of wonder. I wanna call it deep, deep, deep wonder. And the other kind of wonder, I wanna call practical wonder. Like, what am I gonna fix for dinner? You know, why hasn't my boyfriend called? Or, you know, all that kind of stuff. And insert this. The what do you wonder question is a great conversation starter. How many of you are around young children? Yeah, okay. Ask them, what do you wonder about? And fasten your seatbelts, because it's amazing the kinds of things that they'll have to say. So, and I don't wanna forget to say this. One of the secrets, if it's a secret, wow, we're almost half done. Boy, it's really flying, okay. But you know, part of my work is not being in a rush. At the heart of everything we do, we're not in a rush. And so, I figure one of the things I'm really good at is ending on time. Because in the work that I do, and the kids that I work with, we come up with, I call them magic words. And one of the magic words is it is, it is. It is stands for I don't understand. And I wanna empower every kid in the universe, whether they're in a situation, in a school, or whatever, to say it is. Because I hear you say, I don't understand. I wouldn't, I don't understand, it sounds so mean. One of our magic words is oot. Do you wanna say that? Oot, oot. Oot stands for out of time. So when she holds up the sign that says two minutes, I'm just gonna say, ay, oot. I've got two minutes. And when the two minutes is up, I'm done. And it might be mid-sentence. Okay. So, I wanna tell you just a little bit on, maybe I'm only gonna get in one story, but that's okay. Because stories tell an enormous amount. What we do in P4C, not in rows, we always make a circle. Jeez, this thing is really rude, isn't it? I get really, no, I get really one down. We get in a circle. The beauty of the circle is you get to look everybody in the eye. You see everybody, not just the backs of heads. It was a blow to go from kindergarten, where we got to sit in a circle, to first grade, where all I saw was the backs of heads. Backs of heads are boring. So what we do, every first thing, we take something like this, and something like this, and we sit in a circle, and we turn it into, one of these. This is a community ball. And at the end of this process, we're all in a circle. And each, whoever has the community ball, they're the one that's empowered to speak. They're the ones with the power to speak. Think of that, when I think about what would be an innovation in education, think about handing the power over to speak from the teacher who has to carry most of the responsibility of that to the individual children. And wow, do they really appreciate that. The only other thing that governs the use of this is, if it comes to you, and if I toss this to you, if you want, you can pass. If you didn't want to, you can say, I've got it now. No, and you could talk. Okay, so, imagine now we're in a circle. I'm in a circle with kindergartners. And we do a thing about finding out what the questions are that come from the children. And I think that's another incredible innovation in P4C. It's not like we don't ask for questions from kids. But when we're doing it, it's, what do you wonder about? It's not a content-specific thing. It's, what do you really wonder about? So, we pass the thing around, and the kids said different things. We remember what they are. And one of the kids said, you know what I wonder about? The other day, when I was gazing at the stars, I wondered if anything came before space. Did anything come before space? I'm gonna give you a moment. Think in your own mind. Supposing this child comes up to you and says, Mom, Dad, who's our scientist? Did anything come before space? Ooh, wow, that's a wow question. That's what they picked. And so, it went to the child who asked the question. And he's sitting there for a little bit, because they get to start if they pick your question. And finally, he says, hmm, hmm. Can I ask anybody else? He's got it, and the hand goes up, goes over to this child and says, dinosaurs. Maybe dinosaurs came before space. Now, I gotta insert this. When you're doing this with any, whatever age, you don't know where it's gonna go. And the most beautiful thing is when you really don't know either. You got some ideas, and you wanna find out what the kids think, and they get it that you're really interested. You're not being clever and waiting for someone to come up with the right answer. No, you really wanna know what they think. So, I'm thinking, wow, and I, you know, so I said, you know, boys and girls, help me understand, what do dinosaurs, what do they have to do with space? And one kid laughs and says, well, they need a lot of space. Great, now, you know, it's humorous, but I think, when I think of the creative thought that comes out of young children, yeah, they do. It was quiet for a couple minutes, and then one child said, you know something? If dinosaurs need space, then they couldn't come before space. Sometimes, I laugh, laughing, and say, sometimes in the early days, the teachers would pass out. That kid never talked, I mean, look, what a genius, that's really amazing. So it was quiet for a little while longer, and then finally, one of the kids said, God. Maybe God came before space. God is fascinating to very young children. So now, it's time for lunch. And one of the things about P4C time that's kind of irritating, that I love, is the kids will say, oh, do we have to stop? You're going to lunch? No, we want to keep doing P4C, man, this is really cool. Well, so they're doing stuff, and this, one of the girls comes up to me, and she goes, Dr. J, Dr. J, you know what I wonder about? Who made God? Who? I mean, that's what happens. Now, I was gonna make, what are we, two minutes? Wow, we're two minutes, okay. So I figured that in this time, I can only give you a little taste of this. There's some schools on the island here where they're doing P4C. They've been doing it, Waikiki Elementary's been doing it for about 14 years. Kailua High School has been doing it for about 12 years. I want to sneak this in. When the Dalai Lama visited Hawaii in April, he went to Kailua High School, because of the way P4C had changed the culture in the school. So I'd encourage you, if you get a little bit of good energy from what I've just done, go out and see if you can visit the school. And the people that are out there, if people watch this in other parts of the country, take a Hawaiian vacation and talk to us, because we could probably arrange for you to go in and be inspired by kids. Now, jeez, I could end early. I could, should I end early? No. How does it end? Did you guys ever see the gong show years ago? You know, this cane comes out, and that's it, you're gone? Okay, I was gonna, yeah, I'm not gonna tell you more. Maybe we should have coffee afterwards, and I can tell you some more of the stories and things. No, what I, I'll say, this is all, I'll end, every session that we do, wherever it is, and I've done this, and I do this, kindergarten through retirement. Because part of what it's about that I got out of the film festival was, it's bringing people together who really wonder about stuff. And they would like to be in what we call an intellectually safe space, where they can wonder together about these things, who made God, the nature of space, did Santa die? I get the wonderful questions that kids are called with. One child in the first grade, a couple weeks ago, she said, you know what I wonder about? It's been two weeks, and the tooth fairy hasn't come for my tooth yet. And I'm wondering what's going on. And you have to be there to experience the beauty and the power and the empathy that flows from these children. Adults just kind of laugh, you know, this is a very big deal. In terms of, in terms of, where's Angel? In terms of hypothesis formation, my God, they're brilliant. They're absolutely brilliant. Maybe it was a busy week last week for the, you know, the tooth fairy. She's behind in the schedule. Maybe she's sick. You know, these kinds of things. Did Santa die? So there's this, I think the word is cornucopia. Once you create a climate where children realize that you're not asking the questions, you can if you're the teacher, but they're gonna ask the questions, and they're gonna think about which one we wanna talk about, and you know, they find out about each other. You're really interesting. I didn't know you thought that. Wow, didn't, gosh, and you're really, wow, that's really, and they leave with this mindful of so many new ideas from guess who? Some of the people that mean the most to them, their peers. If you see Kailua High School, you go to this school, and just kids are just, they're so together. So I think that it's really a novel idea in education that it's not child-centered. It doesn't go all the way with child-centered. This wants to say that the intellectual inquiry center of gravity, some of the time, is gonna be amongst the children, whatever. Have you guys ever heard of, I think it's, it's either Elmer Fudd or Daffy Duck. Used to be years and years ago, and it would go, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-da-da-da-da-da-da, that's all, folks. Thank you very much.