Recording P4C: listen wince and smile

03/10/2010 by Steve Bramall.

I’m not a movie maker, but when Steve Williams and Open Futures gave me a chance to make some short films of P4C I jumped in. This week I’ve been editing and producing.

I should say, sitting alone in front of a screen is not my favourite place.  If I’m to be sitting alone, I’d rather be outside a tent, deep in a forest, or on my bike heading up to Shaw’s Corner for a picnic lunch. And mostly I’d rather be upright and with people; chatting with a class of excited children in a gallery, or bouncing ideas at a philosophy conference.

But here I am. This one is to be a short animation. Creepy crawlies drawn by Year 5s are to speak the philosophical dialogues and reflections of their young creators. I’m calling it Philosophy Creature Comforts Minibeasts - after the Aardman animations -  only it won’t be as good, obviously. My brief is to animate lightly, partly so we really listen to what’s being said, and partly to make it the sort of film a teacher could reasonably be expected to put together.

So I spend my day getting moths to blink, snails to wink and ladybirds to wave their legs while talking about success, and doing things for yourself, and the value of p4c.

My film making is amateur, but, happily, my shortcomings are pushed into the background: by the childrens’ pictures which are wonderful, by the charm and character of their voices, by the thoughtfulness of their comments and questions. ‘Can everyone succeed if they believe?’ ‘Is it better if things are made by hand?’

I don’t like listening the sound of my own voice, and I find myself wincing at some of the confusion I caused and  opportunities I missed. But I also find myself smiling at some of the young persons’ comments. ‘I like philosophy because it gets me me to ask questions I wouldn’t have thought of…’, ‘I can think of an example of a ‘yes or no’ question that is philosophical….’

By the end, I’ve listened to the audio so many times I know it backwards. I’ve thought about the meaning, the feelings, the nuances, the dialogue moves, the philosophical content, my interventions, the behaviour, the cultural background and so on and on… And it’s a rich and rewarding experience that makes me think that really studying a dialogue is perhaps something we do too little of.

It’s not that we don’t listen, live, at the time - of course we do. And we reflect afterwards on what was said, and by whom, and why. But revisiting a dialogue, over and over gives opportunities to analyse in many more ways, to understand and appreciate much more fully. It’s a route to really thinking about the thinking.

Re-listening to a dialogue is like re-reading a book. Regular re-listening to dialogues in which we have the role of facilitator is like re-reading the story of your own practice. It can reveal a lot about how you work and give opportunities for professional self evaluation and self understanding.

So my resolution is to get into the P4C recording habit.  And next time I’m washing the kitchen floor, I’ll have something to listen, wince and smile about.

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