It's not that I don't have any thoughts of my own at the moment, but when others have better ones, then I can't see the point in not spreading those thoughts wider!
So, having posted a blog that was all about passing on Natalie's news, this blog starts with an article taken from an e-newsletter sent out by a folk singer Karine Polwart. As well as being a very good singer, with a lovely Scottish accent, she is also very much into social justice and ethical thoughts, and I think the following article is excellent:
'ON HOW TO CUT YOUR BIRTHDAY CAKE
It’s September 1994 and I’m in a primary 4 classroom at Castlemilk Primary School on the outskirts of Glasgow. I’m facilitating a weekly philosophical inquiry session for 8 year olds. The discussion that ensues - a wee bit speeded up here - goes like this:
¥ Alex: But Miss, everybody should just get the SAME size bit of birthday cake. It’s no FAIR if anybody gets a bigger bit.
¥ Kyle: I DISAGREE wi Alex cause what if you’re only wee and you dinnae NEED a big bit of cake? Like my wee sister Jemma she just gets a WEE bit of dinner cause she’s only three. And my dad - he gets a bigger dinner ‘cause he’s a MAN.
¥ Eilidh: I AGREE wi Kyle cause some people maybe need more food than other people. But it doesnae mean they’re SPECIAL!
¥ Louise: I DISAGREE with Eilidh cause when it’s my birthday my mum says I AM special. And if it’s your birthday cake then you should DEFINITELY get a bigger bit cause it’s your birthday and you ARE special.
¥ Kyle: I AGREE wi Louise because I always get an extra bit of cake with loads of icing on it when it’s my birthday. But what about the boy in the story’s mum? She made the cake. I think MAYBE she should get a bigger bit too because she made it.
¥ Eilidh: I DISAGREE with Kyle about the boy’s mum getting a bigger bit of cake. Just because she made the cake doesn’t mean it’s HER cake.
¥ Kyle says: I agree with Eilidh. It’s NOT the mum’s cake. She made it for the boy. But he’s too WEE to cut the cake himself with a big sharp knife. It’s only his mum who gets to cut it.
Ah. The brute knife-wielding, birthday-cake-power of mums eh?
That discussion has stayed with me for eighteen years. It unfolded off the back of a storybook designed to stimulate questions in the kids themselves. And as it unfolded, I realised the kids were talking about some of the major ethical and political issues of our era - on their own terms - and through the medium of birthday cake.
What is a fair and just allocation of resources?
Who produces those resources?
Who owns them?
Who wields the cake knife that determines how they’re split?
Who actually needs what?
And what does equality mean in practice?
My head is filled with these questions these days. Yours too?
Imagine a Scotland, UK, world where each of us, like those kids in that Glasgow classroom, felt entitled to, and confident enough to, ask these questions and qualified to have a relevant ethical stance on the answers? Just imagine.'
So, there you have it! In CRED we try and help everyone we work with have that feeling of entitlement and confidence to ask the questions and be listened to as they give their views. But it’s actually about each of us doing that at every level; in the individual conversations as well as the bigger scale ones, with children, teenagers and adults, with each person no matter what their age, gender, race, qualification, level of employment, or not, religious belief.
By allowing an equal conversation, where all parties are equally heard and respected, could we get closer to peace, harmony and unity? It’s worth a try!
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