WALLS

I wanted to continue my work with the group about Walls today, but decided to ease off a bit on the philosophical viewpoint. For a summary of our previous session, which cause frustration on both sides, click here.

Today we started by reading together the Dr Seuss book The Butter Battle Book.

It's an entertaining book with wonderful illustrations and the usual Seuss patter. However, as with many Seuss classics, it also have a deeper message. This one is about the escalation of a disagreement between two groups of people, until the point where both are threatening to drop a bomb which will annihilate everyone and everything.

We discussed the deeper themes of the book, such as how the groups got into the dispute, and also whether it is an easy situation to resolve. We noticed that both groups feel very strongly about which side of the bread the butter should go on, and whether this is an important issue or not, their fervour in pursuing their point of view could not be denied.

It would be too simplistic to ask them to put aside their differences.

 

We didn't solve the bigger issues in the world today, but the discussion was interesting and varied. At the end of the session all the students wrote down a conversation between two people who held different views of a relatively unimportant issue. (Muffins or cupcakes? Apple or pc? Belt or no belt?