How are we supposed to live?
Questions such as this just slip away from our minds as if nothing. But what if we gave us time to think about it? It may turn out to be not so insignificant after all.
This is what I and other children from other Asia-Pacific countries pondered on during six Saturday online sessions of the Philosophy for Children Circle handled and facilitated by the Philosophy with Children and Youth Network for Asia-Pacific.
P4C used the community of inquiry approach in helping us, the participants, raise our questions for which we also gave answers. One would marvel at how deep and relevant participants answered them.
Neither answers were right nor wrong. Adult mentors served only as facilitators.
It is encouraged that we are to also focus on small questions. Understanding them first is essential before discussing significant concepts. We find ourselves later on capable of answering complex questions.
Hence, the answers to the initial question on how we should live are: The way we choose to interact and share despite cultural boundaries; how we treat each other as not inferior or superior but as thinking, living, feeling, and breathing beings through actions we consider appropriate and rational; paving the way to new experiences to enrich our lives.
It was a short ride — six Saturdays of thinking, pondering, and sharing important thoughts, raising relevant questions, and giving meaningful and sound answers with other young people of the Asia-Pacific. It truly opened up our minds to other ideas and cultures.