Teacher's Guide to "Oinkyness".

This story is beautiful in its own way – it's funny as well – and can be read for enjoyment
only. But naturally it is also philosophical, and being a teacher it is extremely important
that you do philosophy with your students. It deepens their minds, make them capable
of thinking independently and takes away prejudices. Thus, philosophy shows us the
deepest way of education, as philosophy is the background for everything. As Ayn Rand
puts it: "Philosophy – who needs it? Everybody!"
In Oinkyness we follow Christina and Martin from their childhood through puberty into
the adulthood in an elegant way. They love each other all the way through, and besides
the everyday's talk, the same philosophical questions come up.
Such as:

Can a child decide independently?
If you make decisions on your own – how do you do it?
What does it mean to make decisions? Do we use our imagination or our rationality?
Try to deepen this issue, that makes it possible for the students to understand what is
going on in themselves.

Pain

The two children discuss hurting: "It's only parts of you, that hurt – not the whole You.

Possible questions:

Does a wound only hurt because you see the wound with your eyes and the blood
coming from it? Can you be angry with your own personality?
What is personality?
Make every student try to come up with a definition.
Is there an "I" inside us deciding for us, so that we are empty shells doing what this I
tell us to do?
Where does the soul come in?
Is the soul and the I the same?
Or is God deciding for us?
Is everything "a priori"?
Could it be an illusion that we really deep down decide ourselves?
Here we touch thoughts that every child possesses, and they would be more than happy
to debate it, because modern children are very often left on their own with their inner
thoughts, and therefore maybe feeling, that "I'm the only one with these crazy thoughts
and therefore I'm worth nothing".
(In this talk it might be a good idea to see the film "YOU & I", in which four children
discuss exactly these concepts in a very profound way).

Can friends, parents, teachers change your I or is the I the same all the time?

Dualism Or Entity

In the small talk between Andreas and Per this issues pops up.
Dualism has haunted philosophers through the years. The result is thousands of
questions (Philosophy is questioning and provides no final answers to anything)
Descartes wrote about dualism and believed, that there are two worlds in us: a soulish
world and a materialistic world. His works have had a deep impact on Western thinking,
often leading us the wrong ways and confusing us.
Monism says: Existence is one substance. Per uses the word "entity".
Pluralism sees human life as consisting of many substances simultaneously.
Perhaps this problem occurred with Plato, who "invented" the concept soul and thus sort
of parted our lives in two. This has caused a lot of problems for many people.
So it is important to debate this with your students, because you can be quite sure, that
they have been thinking about this many times.

Is there something called a soul?
What is it?
Is the soul and the "I" the same?
Did God create our souls?
Can our souls change or do they stay the same all life?
Can we be hurt in our souls?
Can you feel your soul?
How?
Have soul and emotions anything to do with each other?
How?
How is the connection between soul and body?
Make every student express themselves.

Contrary Terms

Martin says: "Life is not contrary terms".
What could he possibly mean?
Is it so, that everything only exists because of its contrary term?
There we go with the dualism again. It is still haunting us!
You can see emotions and logic as contrary terms, but you can also see Life and our
inner life as one thing: holism.
You have to take up the debate again.
Can we depart body and soul?
Or is it really an entity?

Measuring

Martin says: "The measuring makes us believe, that immeasurable things don't exist".
What could he mean?
We measure Time, but does it exist?

Try to find things you cannot measure?
Discuss.
Can you measure love, longing, conscience etc.?
Is it so, that we can only measure things, when they are connected to logic, and no
ethical, metaphysical, and emotional things?
Is this dualism again?
The Sumerians invented Time, parted an hour in 60 minutes, and a minute in 60
seconds. We still work with this, but is time a fact?

Language And Confusion

Christina sees education following a wrong path, that kills children's inborn entity.
So:
Why do we have something called education?
Only to learn?
Or to behave properly?
Do children understand things without being told?
Is traditional teaching splitting kids' minds?
Is individual teaching the path to follow?
If Christina is right in her opinions on education, could philosophizing be the way to heal
the wound?
Try to make a discussion about these problems.

Socrates And Aristotle

Christina's and Martin's kids are named after these two philosophers from ancient
Greece. Tell the students about them and the conflict between their thinking. Tell them
about the enormous impact these two men have had on our society even today.
Socrates said: "The greatest knowledge is to realise, that you know nothing".
Discuss and try to find argument for and against it.
Try to compare his statement with the text.
Try to find the boy Socrates' theory about the invisible doors in the text.
Discuss.
He also says, that you cannot measure the heartbeat of Life.
It would be almost the same as instead of being happy to receive a love letter from the
girl you long for you start counting the letters and the commas in it!

SLAVES ARE CLEVERER THAN KINGS, BECAUSE THEY HAVE SEEN LIFE

This last sentence of the essay is almost biblical in its expression.
Try to open a debate about this.
And compare with The Beatitudes:
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Discuss this.
Are you closer to Life, when you are poor?
Are you closer to Life when you suffer?
Does richness make you blind for the values of Life?


This essay is so profound that you can spend many lessons on it.
Before you go to the class with it, sit down one evening and read the text in its whole
without thinking in pedagogical terms. Just enjoy the story-telling and the life-joy and
the fun of it. Then do your preparation for the lessons in class.
Good luck!!!

Per Jespersen

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