Philosophical Discussion—Frog and Toad
Though I feel having philosophical discussions with my EC students is a wonderful idea and very important as well, this particular class really struggled with many of the questions. At first all I got was a lot of blank stares. Bravery and courage aren’t concrete and sometimes thinking beyond the concrete proves to be a challenge for my students. They do love Frog and Toad so really enjoyed the story. We started with Matthew’s question concerning this,” Frog and Toad look in the mirror to see if they are brave. Frog says they look brave. Toad asks if they really are brave.” I asked , “how do you look when you’re brave?” Blank stares. And we did discuss the meaning of the word brave first. I kept on until finally one student said you stand up tall and hold your head up high. Then another said Frog and Toad weren’t brave because they were humped over and not standing straight. Yes! I finally got something. They decided that you can look brave but you can also be brave and not look any different than you normally do. Most agreed that no one looks brave all of the time and one said that you don’t have to be doing something scary to be brave. You just wake up brave everyday. One girl said she never woke up brave but felt brave when she went out to feed her dog at night.
The general consensus was that you have to do something scary to show that you’re brave-like jumping off a building. When I asked them if you’re doing something dangerous and you don’t know it’s dangerous are you brave, some said yes, one said no because you wouldn’t know you needed to be brave.
I then asked how Toad knows he is not afraid and one boy said he just feels like he’s brave and that nobody has to tell you if you’re brave or not, you just know. We were moving slowly past the concrete. I was so excited!
This group agreed that if you run away from something, you could never be called brave. As one said, “That makes you a chicken.” One student said that you don’t have to be brave all of the time but you should be most of the time.
At the end of the discussion I asked again-What does it mean to be brave? This time the consensus was when you’re not scared of something and when you have a good feeling inside your body. We’re definitely getting there. And I think the more we do these lessons the more the thinking of my students will stretch. They’re just not used to thinking in this way. Others have always done it for them. I’ll have the same group next year so look forward to having more philosophical discussions.
I feel this book is very deserving of the Newbery Honor Book Award because of the philosophical aspect it brings to the endearing Frog and Toad stories. The Newbery is for the most distinguished author in American Children’s literature and this book because of its depth and possibilities for instruction in the classroom is definitely deserving.
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