About Ethics Fun

The aim of ethicsfun.com is to provide simple tools for anyone wanting to introduce and teach ethical understanding and reasoning to young children.

The topics featured in the ethicsfun.com cartoons have been selected after consulting a wide range of books, curriculums and websites about Philosophy for children (P4C). They also support the Ethical Understanding and Critical & Creative Thinking General Capabilities in the Australian Primary Curriculum.

The approach taken for the discussion prompts provided for teachers is modelled on Socratic dialogue as well as contemporary teaching styles. More resources are being constantly developed and we welcome feedback and ideas on things to include. Philosophy has always been an evolving discipline which benefits most from open discussion and the sharing of opinions. This website is a resource that provides simple entry-level lessons for teachers and parents as well as reviews and information about a wide range of resources that have been developed for teaching philosophy to children. We are always adding to our resource section, so please contact us with any new recommendations.

The Founder, Lynn Dickinson, has worked in the educational publishing industry for over 30 years and has always had an interest in philosophy. Studying philosophy in the 80’s, while raising a young family, greatly assisted to organise her intellect and develop her critical thinking skills. Lynn’s primary and secondary education was highly fragmented (attending 17 schools in different countries) and she credits her time studying philosophy for finally teaching her how to think and to help her decide how she could live a meaningful life.  As anyone with an interest in philosophy knows, it gives us more questions than answers. But knowing what questions to ask is a powerful skill to learn. The Ethics Fun teaching resources  enable children to acquire this skill, to help them to make sense of the world, as well as having fun!

A variety of talented illustrators have contributed to this website.

Paul Lennon – paullennonillustrator@gmail.com

Matthew Linn – studio@matthewlin.com.au

website: www.matthewlin.com.au

Phillip Rice – pjrice78@hotmail.com

Kathlyn Harrison is a former Primary school teacher whose teaching career spanned decades. She now enjoys travelling and writing about her passion – philosophy. She is a firm believer in the use of philosophical principles to empower students to think critically in all areas of their lives.

While on staff at Buranda State School Kathlyn co-wrote the book ‘Philosophy with young children-a classroom handbook’ after they implemented the ‘Philosophy in Schools’ programme. Due to the success of this programme at the school, she became involved in teacher training in these principles and presenting workshops at conferences around Australia.

Kathlyn has used her expertise to produce a collection of discussion sheets on ethical topics for teachers. This material facilitates leading students to ask deep questions about issues in the story in order to have a thoughtful discussion with others. In this process the students present alternative points of view to consider and are drawn to ponder the deeper meaning of concepts and come closer to understanding them.