Teacher's Guide to "Wordlessness"

This is the last of the five deepessays – a short story about a class spending a week in
the wilderness far away from the surroundings, they are used to. The children are in
their puberty, a weird mixture of being a child and being adult. The steps to adulthood
are difficult emotionally and cognitively, but a good talk in class about this step of Life is
very important. You cannot do it in all countries, and the problems with puberty are
definitely not the same in all cultures. As a teacher you know how far you can go and
how close you can go to the students. One sometimes wonder, why it is so difficult to
grow up through this period. It is as if everything is turned upside down: former
problems are nothing to speak about any longer – and ridiculously unimportant things
and happenings are all of a sudden a question of life and death. And in the middle of it
all you find yourself being a living human being forming a personality. It can be
experienced as getting a new I, that you might not recognize or that you do love.
Growing up is a challenge, and it is crucial to talk with the students about this step of
Life, so that they are not left alone with their thoughts and emotions.

Philosophy for children has an important role to play here. But do remember, that
philosophy is not the goal, but a method. Whatever you are talking about in class, there
is always philosophy behind. Philosophy is the background of everything, so when you
talk philosophy with your students, you do something existentialistic, and exactly
existentialism is the concept, that leaves children lonely and spiritually weak if not
talked about, and crucial if used. This demands, that the teacher sees her/himself as a
catalyst for the exchange of thoughts between his/her students. Whatever you do
philosophically with the children: they will never forget it, and you will be the catalyst of
their future.

Man/Woman

The children chat about gender:
Man invented the wheel, and the women were cooking.
If you live in a country, where you can discuss these matters:
Look back through history and find out how many women are mentioned there. The
philosophers were men, the scientists were men, state leaders were men, writers were
men and writing women had to write under a man's name. It is as if there were no
women at all.
Take a look at UN's human rights and find out what they say about equality of status
and equal pay.
Do we have the right to interfere in other culture's ways of living and dealing with this
problem?
Try to make every student express him/herself (or her/himself).
This talk could lead to a talk about globalization. You very often hear politicians talk
about "The World Order". One could get the suspicion, that what they mean is "The
American Order", so that you find Mac Donald’s everywhere in the world: on the South
Pole – in Sahara Desert – in a Siberian village.
This is a disaster!
The philosophical issue here is, whether the globalization kills the cultural network, we
all need, because we loose our roots in our own history.
Here the Internet comes in. Maybe it globalizes the whole world – maybe the virtual world
kills the real world?
Take a deep talk about this.
What do differences in culture mean?
Are they a value or do they prevent us from talking with each other?
Are we really valuable, because we are different from others?
What happens to a human being, if it looses its roots in history?
Can animals feel fear?
Nature and human beings do not speak the same language, John says.
Does that mean, that we cannot understand Nature?
Well, we can investigate it, measure some of it, take pictures of it – but understand it?
Discuss.
What does Nature mean to us?
Are we part of Nature or are we something else?

Loneliness

In some parts of the world, especially in the Western world, people's loneliness is growing
appallingly. We do not talk much with each other, but communicate through the internet,
the phone, the fax-machine etc. But real talking is not there. The human dialogue seems
to be dead.
This leaves us with a deep feeling of loneliness, which could be dangerous for the
culture.
But still:
The text says, that deep down we are all very lonely. There will always be things we do
not discuss with anybody.
Discuss that in class.
Is it natural for us to be lonely inside?
Why?
What do you do, when you feel very lonely?
Do friends come in here?
Parents?
Teachers?
Neighbours?

Magic

The children see a strong light in the forest, they get no explanation, neither do we. The
enigma!
What is magic?
Try to make every student explain and discuss.
Is magic the expression of the immeasurable?
Is there an enigma in every single human being?
In Life?
In Nature?
Will there be a difference, if you see Nature through logical or magical glasses?
What would the difference be?
Do logic and rationality kill our ability to see the magic?
The ancient philosophy has very little to do with magic – it's rational and logical. But the
philosophy of some Arab cultures and the Chinese culture is very much magic – even so
much, that we do not understand it.
Maybe Shifra has some of the answer, when she says, that we loose the spirit of Life, if
we build our lives on explainable things only.
And when she says, that we should share the magical spirit of Life.

Do you agree with her?
Discuss.

The essay ends with the words: END OF LANGUAGE.
Perhaps language is a veil around the magic.
Perhaps we can talk things dead and unmagic.
Perhaps the Eastern sort of meditation hits the nail.
Therefore:
After the discussion and debates with the class you should do the following:
Close you eyes – all of you – do not listen to the sounds from the school or from the street
outside – but listen to yourself and listen to the words, that have been spoken in this
lesson. Relax – relax – relax!!! When your body relaxes, you make room for your spirit,
where there are no words, no sentences, no noise – but spiritual tranquillity.

END OF LANGUAGE

Per Jespersen

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