Anti-Bullying Week – P4C questions and stimuli

This year’s Anti-Bullying theme is One Kind Word and is a great opportunity to use Philosophy for Children to develop dialogue around the concept of kindness.

Stimuli

Here are some stimuli you could use, with approximate age recommendations: 

Age 3-4

• Animation: Colour Your World with Kindness

• Book: Something Else? by Kathryn Cave

Age 5-7

• Animation: The man who changed his ways

Age 8-11

• Video: Stand Up For Someone

• Speech: How you treat people is who you are

• Video: Be kind to others

• Quote: There's no such thing as a small act of kindness.  Every act creates a ripple, with no logical end.  – Scott Adams (creator of 'Dilbert', quoted at Random Acts of Kindness)

Questions

Alternatively, here are some questions that you could give your pupils to discuss. I’ve put ones for younger children at the beginning of the list:

• Would you rather be friends with someone who is really kind, or really sensible?

• Would you rather meet a tarantula who was kind, or a puppy who wasn’t?

• Would you rather be friends with a kind zebra or a fun zebra?

• Which are more important – kind words or kind actions?

• Is one kind word enough?

• Which is better – being kind or being happy?

• Which is more important – being kind or being polite?

• What's more important – speaking kindly to friends and family, or speaking kindly to strangers?

• What’s more important – finishing your task, or stopping to be kind to someone?

• Is there a difference between acting kind and being kind?

• Can you be too kind?

• Is it still kindness if you are only kind ‘because you have to’?

• Do bullies deserve kind words, even though they have said unkind ones to others?

• Who is responsible for saying something kind, when everyone has said unkind things?

Anti-Bullying Week 2021 is 15-19 November in the UK.