Philosophy - “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein

We have been looking at The Giving Tree over the past couple of weeks both for philosophy and for our inquiry into survival. Here are some responses to the book:

That’s a sad story, because the boy killed the tree.

Why did it keep saying that the tree was happy?

• The tree was offering.
• The tree changed her mind. He chopped down her stump and then she was just a stump and she wasn’t happy.
• The tree was happy even though it was cut down because she wanted the boy to live, that’s why she was happy.

Also as part of philosophy and our inquiry into survival, we are exploring and reflecting upon our rights and responsibilities and the rights of nature. I was amazed at the children’s understanding of our rights in our first discussion of what our rights are (apart from talking about our right to learn and our right to feel safe).

What are our rights?

• We have the right to play
• We have the right to build houses
• We have the right to run
• We have the right to eat and drink
• We have the right to sleep
• We have the right to a home
• We have the right to have pets.
• I think us and trees and nature have the same amount of rights
• I think people have the right to do anything
• We have the right not to kill nature
• We don’t have the right to starve people
• We don’t have the right to kill nature
• We have the right to eat
• We have the right to build cubby houses in trees

Discussion about one child’s claimed right – Do we have the right to have pets?

• Human beings have the right to have pets ‘cause people need guide dogs to guide them ‘cause they might be blind.
• Same as child x because I have a cat at home; because if you get bored you can play with them.
• We have the right to hold pets but only if you ask the owner. You can’t take them from someone else.
• I don’t agree - I don’t have a pet.
• You have the right to get pets from the pet shop because they sell them and it’s all right to get them.
• We have the right to have pets because I have (several animals) and my mum bought them with her own money... they were saved by people. They were sick or something. I think that we have the right to have pets because if we don’t they might get sick or die.

Do we have the right to keep birds in cages?

• I think we have the right to keep birds in cages if the windows or doors are open.
• We don’t have the right to keep them in cages because then they can’t fly around and they don’t have fresh air.
• We do have the right to keep birds in cages because some cages are only metal squares and they can get fresh air and still fly around a bit.
• I think we don’t have the right to keep birds in cages ‘cause if they’re in cages they don’t have much room. 
• If we keep birds in cages, and we forget to give them water or food, then they’ll die (thus, we are making them dependent on us for their survival).
• We can keep birds in cages if they are endangered because then we can protect them and keep them safe. 

We then spoke briefly about protected breeding programs and then releasing them back into the wild.

What are our responsibilities if we do keep pets?

• We have to give them drinks, food, and names because, like for rabbits, they need this little bottle that has a tube, and if we don’t let them have any of that, food or drinks or names, they’ll die.
• You can have pets because they need help from humans, like food. Our responsibility is to give them food and water.