Philosophy - trying your best!

This week in philosophy we looked at the book ‘Ish’ by Peter Reynolds. Whilst the book is about art we took the theme of trying and doing your best as our discussion point.

Here are some of the children’s ideas.

Year 2

Year 3

Should we always try our best?
Yes	No
You do better if you do your best. People are proud of you. You feel proud of yourself. You get people saying nice things to you. You get good feedback. If you try your best you will get better and better. You might be scared but you have to try and then you might find you can. It might get you somewhere good like in a competition. You might make some money. If you try harder then you know you can do it. It feels great. You can get it right.	You can’t do your best all the time but mistakes are ok. Not if the prize isn’t a good one. Not at home, because no one is watching.
If you do your best will you always succeed?
Yes	No
Mistakes don’t matter you can turn them into something else. The race doesn’t finish until the last person crosses the line! (6yr old) If you keep on trying your best you will always get better. You succeed if you finish. Even if you fall you can get up and keep trying. You might not win but you will get better and be proud of yourself.	You might make a mistake. You might be tripped, fall or be bumped. You might get a try for the other team. Even if you do your best there might be someone better. You could be up against a lot of people like in a marathon. Something might go wrong fro you.