Thunks

As part of our commitment to developing children’s spirituality our whole school take part in weekly Thunk sessions.

  • If you expect the unexpected, will the unexpected still be expected? 
  • Can you touch the wind? 
  • If there was a magic pill that meant that you could never fail, would you take it? 

A Thunk is a simple question about everyday things designed to stop you in your tracks and to help you to look at the world in a completely different way. Thunks help individuals to develop philosophical thinking, confidence in their own opinions and the ability to listen to others, through open-ended questions where there are no right or wrong answers. 

  • If we’re all told to be an individual, is there such thing as being ordinary? 
  • If we’ve read the whole dictionary, is every other book a remix? 
  • If you borrow a million dollars does that make you a millionaire 
  • If I ask you if I can steal your pen and you say yes, is that stealing? 

Thunks are great to ponder individually but also benefit hugely from group input. In school they offer a great way to get learners thinking and enable teachers to understand HOW students are thinking and what knowledge they have.  All learners are able to contribute to a class discussion and teachers are able to facilitate this discussion by building on one person’s answer and including all members of the class. 

  • Can you be prepared for a surprise? 
  • Can you have too much money? 
  • Would you want to remember everything if you could? 
  • Can you trust anything on the internet? 

The term thunks to describe the use of simple questions to develop thinking comes from Ian Gilbert’s book The Little Book of Thunks: 260 Questions to make your brain go ouch! 

  • Are you what you eat? 
  • Which is better, natural or manmade? 
  • Do clothes make people ‘cool’? 
  • Are your shadows part of us? 

For a comprehensive source of thunking questions see the website Thunks: Questions to Make Your Brain Go Ouch https://www.independentthinking.co.uk/thunks/   which has over 2000 thunks and nearly 190,000 answers so far.  You can also submit your own thunk questions there. 

  • Is childhood the best time of our lives? 
  • Would life be better without mobile phones? 
  • Does the way we look affect the way we behave? 

Get Thunking! 

Here are a few examples of our Thunks so far..