Wisdom, Being Wise, and Cultivating Wisdom [P4C Philosophy Lesson - Philosophy Teaching Resource]

This ‘Fun Philosophy Lesson’ is focused on ‘wisdom’ and will get your students thinking deeply about the nature of wisdom, what it means to live wisely, and how they can cultivate wisdom. Since philosophy is, first and foremost, ‘the love of wisdom’: we consider this session to be of particular importance!

This interactive multi-use learning session is useful as a part of your schools performing arts provision and is of particular interest to PSHE and SMSC leaders it focuses on a wide range of topics such as:

• The nature of wisdom
• The difference between wisdom, knowledge, and intelligence
• How to cultivate wisdom
• What it means to live wisely
• The importance of choosing wise role-models in life
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  We’ve aimed to cover as many issues as possible when it comes to finding engaging philosophical and ethical issues for young learners to debate and discuss in relation to wisdom!

The big question asked in this session is “What is ‘wisdom’ and how can we become more wise as individuals?”. Using a variety of engaging activities students will discuss and debate a wide range of other philosophical and ethical questions such as:

• What is the difference between a wise decision and an unwise one?

• Why are some people wiser than others?

• What can a person do in order to cultivate wisdom over time?

• To what extent can wisdom be taught in schools? and

• What is the connection between being wise and being virtuous (being a good person)?
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  Students will also analyse and evaluate an eclectic mix of philosophical and ethical claims such as:

• “There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom.”

• “Animals can be wise. Animals sometimes have their own wisdom.”

• “It is impossible to objectively and accurately measure wisdom in other people.”

• “Reading ancient texts that claim to contain wise words and sayings is a waste of time”

• “Science delivers useful knowledge but the scientific method cannot give us wisdom” and

• “Meditation can help people to become more wise and live more wisely”
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  This session uses our unique format for philosophy teaching resources and features an integrated menu that allows teachers to select from a variety of starter, main, plenary, assessment and end-of-lesson reflection activities. With a massive selection of activities designed to trigger philosophical discussions, debates and reflections: you can re-use the resource numerous times with the same group. For teachers wishing to run ‘P4C’ (Philosophy for Children) sessions these resources are ideal!

The file is a non-editable PowerPoint Show: no planning or preparation is required, just run the file and the intuitive menu system will make delivering a powerful philosophy session very easy!