{"id":13637,"date":"2011-11-07T15:27:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T23:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philosophyforchildren.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/"},"modified":"2011-11-07T15:27:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T23:27:00","slug":"harold-and-the-purple-crayon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/","title":{"rendered":"Harold and the Purple Crayon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-HlkzPLzTBeY\/TrhaFY7m5JI\/AAAAAAAAAYQ\/eZF8hoZp_zc\/s1600\/images-1.jpeg\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-HlkzPLzTBeY\/TrhaFY7m5JI\/AAAAAAAAAYQ\/eZF8hoZp_zc\/s1600\/images-1.jpeg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">What can we know about the nature of reality? A wonderful story for motivating conversations about this question is&nbsp;<i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Harold-Purple-Crayon-Anniversary-Books\/dp\/0064430227\">Harold and the Purple Crayon<\/a><\/i>&nbsp;by Crockett Johnson. First published in 1955, the&nbsp;story begins with Harold deciding, \u201cafter thinking it over for some time,\u201d to take a walk in the moonlight. No moon is out, so Harold takes his purple crayon and draws one, and then he draws something to walk on. &nbsp;Harold goes on to draw a forest in which he wanders, a dragon that ends up frightening him, an ocean in which he almost drowns and a boat which saves him, a beach, a lunch to eat, etc.<\/span><br \/><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>  <o:DocumentProperties>   <o:Template>Normal.dotm<\/o:Template>   <o:Revision>0<\/o:Revision>   <o:TotalTime>0<\/o:TotalTime>   <o:Pages>1<\/o:Pages>   <o:Words>112<\/o:Words>   <o:Characters>644<\/o:Characters>   <o:Company>University of Washington<\/o:Company>   <o:Lines>5<\/o:Lines>   <o:Paragraphs>1<\/o:Paragraphs>   <o:CharactersWithSpaces>790<\/o:CharactersWithSpaces>   <o:Version>12.0<\/o:Version>  <\/o:DocumentProperties>  <o:OfficeDocumentSettings>   <o:AllowPNG\/>  <\/o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>  <w:WordDocument>   <w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>   <w:TrackMoves>false<\/w:TrackMoves>   <w:TrackFormatting\/>   <w:PunctuationKerning\/>   <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt<\/w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>   <w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>18 pt<\/w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing>   <w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>0<\/w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery>   <w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>0<\/w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery>   <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas\/>   <w:SaveIfXMLInval>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>   <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent>   <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>   <w:Compatibility>    <w:BreakWrappedTables\/>    <w:DontGrowAutofit\/>    <w:DontAutofitConstrainedTables\/>    <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx\/>   <\/w:Compatibility>  <\/w:WordDocument> <\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>  <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"276\">  <\/w:LatentStyles> <\/xml><![endif]-->  <!--[if gte mso 10]>  <![endif]-->    <!--StartFragment-->    <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: inherit;\">This story was a favorite of my children when they were younger, and I have read it with children in classrooms from first grade through middle school. It raises such questions as: Is Harold pretending? Is what he draws real? How can what he draws scare him? Is the moon we see more real than Harold\u2019s moon \u2013 and, if so, why? Is Harold dreaming? Can we create our own reality?<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"><o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<p><!--EndFragment--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What can we know about the nature of reality? A wonderful story for motivating conversations about this question is&nbsp;Harold and the Purple Crayon&nbsp;by Crockett Johnson. First published in 1955, the&nbsp;story begins with Harold deciding, \u201cafter thinking it over for some time,\u201d to take a walk in the moonlight. No moon is out, so Harold takes <a href=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Harold and the Purple Crayon<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,196,195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-childrens-literature","category-philosophy-for-children","category-wondering-aloud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Harold and the Purple Crayon - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Harold and the Purple Crayon - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Harold and the Purple Crayon - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Harold and the Purple Crayon - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PLATO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PLATOPhilosophy?fref=ts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-07T23:27:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"201\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"251\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Mohr Lone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@WGAdmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@platoorg\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jana Mohr Lone\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/73f61769c3bfdaeefc1633dd9cc8d59c\"},\"headline\":\"Harold and the Purple Crayon\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-07T23:27:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":189,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Children's Literature\",\"philosophy for children\",\"Wondering Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/\",\"name\":\"Harold and the Purple Crayon - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-07T23:27:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Harold and the Purple Crayon - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg\",\"width\":201,\"height\":251},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Harold and the Purple Crayon\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"PLATO\",\"description\":\"Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/Plato-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/05\\\/Plato-Logo.png\",\"width\":354,\"height\":181,\"caption\":\"Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/PLATOPhilosophy?fref=ts\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/platoorg\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/73f61769c3bfdaeefc1633dd9cc8d59c\",\"name\":\"Jana Mohr Lone\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/473310b56e100f9d73f672c58969cae8bd9860fca5c0310556a9ddb201f31e37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/473310b56e100f9d73f672c58969cae8bd9860fca5c0310556a9ddb201f31e37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/473310b56e100f9d73f672c58969cae8bd9860fca5c0310556a9ddb201f31e37?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jana Mohr Lone\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.plato-philosophy.org\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/WGAdmin\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/author\\\/jana\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Harold and the Purple Crayon - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization","description":"Harold and the Purple Crayon - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Harold and the Purple Crayon - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization","og_description":"Harold and the Purple Crayon - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.","og_url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/","og_site_name":"PLATO","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PLATOPhilosophy?fref=ts","article_published_time":"2011-11-07T23:27:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":201,"height":251,"url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jana Mohr Lone","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@WGAdmin","twitter_site":"@platoorg","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/"},"author":{"name":"Jana Mohr Lone","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#\/schema\/person\/73f61769c3bfdaeefc1633dd9cc8d59c"},"headline":"Harold and the Purple Crayon","datePublished":"2011-11-07T23:27:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/"},"wordCount":189,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg","articleSection":["Children's Literature","philosophy for children","Wondering Aloud"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/","url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/","name":"Harold and the Purple Crayon - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg","datePublished":"2011-11-07T23:27:00+00:00","description":"Harold and the Purple Crayon - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/harold-purple-crayon-1.jpeg","width":201,"height":251},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/harold-and-the-purple-crayon\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Harold and the Purple Crayon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/","name":"PLATO","description":"Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#organization","name":"Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization","url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Plato-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Plato-Logo.png","width":354,"height":181,"caption":"Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PLATOPhilosophy?fref=ts","https:\/\/x.com\/platoorg"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/#\/schema\/person\/73f61769c3bfdaeefc1633dd9cc8d59c","name":"Jana Mohr Lone","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/473310b56e100f9d73f672c58969cae8bd9860fca5c0310556a9ddb201f31e37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/473310b56e100f9d73f672c58969cae8bd9860fca5c0310556a9ddb201f31e37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/473310b56e100f9d73f672c58969cae8bd9860fca5c0310556a9ddb201f31e37?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jana Mohr Lone"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.plato-philosophy.org","https:\/\/x.com\/WGAdmin"],"url":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/author\/jana\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}