There
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Summary
There explores a number of questions about the future, personal identity, and language.
A little girl pictures the future as a different place—a place called “There”—and has a lot of questions about this place. The questions she asks include how long it will take her to get “there,” what will she know “there,” and what will things be like “there,” Her questions echo worries that many children might have about how the world will be as they get older and how they will be in that world. In the end, the little girl unpacks her bag and decides to put off going there until tomorrow, since she has lots to do.
Read aloud video by Bugg Magnet ES
Guidelines for Philosophical Discussion
The little girl’s musings in the story raise philosophical questions about the future and our capacity to know anything about it. Her questions fall into two main areas: “What will the world be like in the future?” and “What will I be like in the future?” Under these two broad areas, there are many possibilities for philosophical discussion with students.
Under the first, you can bring up questions of how we know what we know about the future, or why we expect the world and the things in it to behave in certain ways. We “know” the sun is going to rise tomorrow morning, but what is our reason for believing that? According to Hume, we expect the world to behave in certain ways based on having observed it behave that way before. But this reasoning is not infallible; it could always turn out to be wrong. We might expect the refrigerator light to come on every time we open the refrigerator, because every time we have opened it before, the light has come on. But what if the bulb dies, and one day we open the refrigerator and no light comes on? This is an example of how our inductive reasoning can fail us.
Skeptics question whether we can know anything about the world for certain. We might see the world behave in certain ways and recognize patterns, but this is not enough to know anything for sure. So what about some of the zanier things the girl in the story wonders about the future? You can whether it might be possible that in the future, the girl might be as tall as house… They will probably say no. What about that she will wear sensible shoes and say sensible things? That seems possible. That there will be rainbows? Of course there will still be rainbows! That sunflowers and blueberries will be a different color? That there will be dragons? Children will probably have instinctual responses to these questions, but you can press them to think about why they feel so certain about these things. What makes them think the girl wouldn’t be as tall as a house or that there wouldn’t be different colored blueberries or dragons? Hopefully they will realize that these beliefs are based on what they have observed in the world before, and you can start a discussion of whether these observations are enough for them to know for sure how the future will be.
The other category to talk about has to do with the girl’s concern about how she will be in the future. The questions here are a little different, but are connected to the questions in the other category. The girl wonders whether she will know everything and whether she will stop saying silly things. She is wondering what kind of person she will be in the future, and what it will be like to be a grown-up. However, she feels certain of some things. The girl says, “I’ll still build snowmen and sandcastles, definitely.” You can use this to talk to the kids about what they think will stay the same about themselves as they grow older and what might change. You can also ask them what they’d like to take with them from here when they go “there,” or when they grow up, and why this is so important to them. Is it something that makes them who they are? Is it something about them that will never change, even if other things about them do? This might turn into a discussion with the students about the self and personal identity.
A final philosophical topic you may want to talk about has to do with the philosophy of language. The word “there” is what is called an indexical—a word which refers to different things depending on the context in which it is used. A few other examples of indexicals are “I,” “this,” and “tomorrow.” When we use the word “there,” we refer to a specific place, which is usually at some distance from us. But “there” means something different depending on where we are and to what it refers. It can be interesting to get the children to think about these sorts of words, what they mean, and how they mean it.
To begin your discussion, you can fill out the following chart with the children to help them think about the philosophical issues.
Questions for Philosophical Discussion
The Future
The girl wonders whether she will be as tall as a house or the trees, whether she will wear sensible shoes and say sensible things, and whether there will be rainbows There.
- Do you think some of her beliefs about the future are possible, and some of them are impossible? (Here it might be helpful to go through the pictures of some of the things she wonders about.)
- What is an example of something that seems impossible? What makes you think it is impossible?
- Could it be possible? What would have to change to make it possible?
- Do you think any of the things she imagines definitely will happen?
- Is there anything you know for sure about your future? How do you know it?
Personal Identity
The girl is unsure of many things, but knows she will still build snowmen and sandcastles.
- Do you think the girl will really keep building snowmen and sandcastles in the future?
- Do you know any older people who don’t like to do the same things they used to like to do?
- What is something you like to do, that you think you’ll still like to do when you get older?
- What is something about you that you think will be different when you get older? What do you think will definitely not change?
- The girl asks whether she can bring her teddy with her. What is something you’d like to carry with you to the future? Why is it important to you?
- Do you think you’ll still feel the same about this thing in the future?
Language
The girl wonders when she will get “there” and whether there will be a sign that says “Here is There.”
- What are some different ways you might use the word “there”? Does the word have one meaning?
- What do you think the girl means by “there”?
- What do you think the sign “here is there” would mean? Can you call one place here and also there at the same time?
- Does the word “I” mean the same thing for everyone, or something different for every person?
- Is it ever tomorrow?
Original questions and guidelines for philosophical discussion by Emily Fuller. Edited June 2020 by The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics.
Find tips for leading a philosophical discussion on our Resources page.
About the Prindle Institute
As one of the largest collegiate ethics institutes in the country, the Prindle Institute for Ethics’ uniquely robust national outreach mission serves DePauw students, faculty and staff; academics and scholars throughout the United States and in the international community; life-long learners; and the Greencastle community in a variety of ways. In 2019, the Prindle Institute partrnered with Thomas Wartenberg and became the digital home of his Teaching Children Philosophy discussion guides.
Further Resources
Some of the books on this site may contain characterizations or illustrations that are culturally insensitive or inaccurate. We encourage educators to visit the Association for Library Service to Children’s resource guide for talking to children about issues of race and culture in literature. They also have a guide for navigating tough conversations. PBS Kids’ set of resources for talking to young children about race and racism might also be useful for educators.
Philosophy often deals with big questions like the existence of a higher power or death. Find tips for leading a philosophical discussion on our resources page.
