World 05
Self, emotions, relationships, psychology, philosophy and ethics
This World is where every other World begins. Long before a child can explain their reasoning, they are sorting, testing, predicting and revising.
Between one and three, thinking is visible in the hands. A toddler posts a lid through a slot, drops a stone into water twice to check it happens again, and turns a puzzle piece until it agrees. Narrate what you see rather than correcting it.
Naming a feeling changes it.
Other people, other lives, other reasons.
Care of self is care of others.
The intellectual architecture
Self-knowledge and ethical reasoning are the capabilities most strongly associated with a life that goes well, and the ones most reliably left to chance by conventional schooling.
Questions worth a childhood
Underneath
Philosophy · Psychology · Sociology · Politics · Religious studies
Where it can lead: Philosophy, Law, Medicine, Psychology, Public policy, Theology.
Concepts carried here: systems, evidence and inference, scarcity, value and exchange, change over time, ethical reasoning — the same ideas recur in other Worlds, which is the point.
0–18, and what changes
Others feel things
Becomes able to: responds to distress.
Demonstrated when: Offers comfort unprompted.
Rules exist · Turn-taking
Becomes able to: objects to unfairness.
Demonstrated when: Explains why something was unfair.
Accidents differ from choices
Becomes able to: distinguishes intent from outcome.
Demonstrated when: Judges two incidents differently on intent.
Actions affect others beyond the room
Becomes able to: predicts an effect on someone else.
Demonstrated when: Changes a plan because of a consequence they spotted.
Two good things can conflict
Becomes able to: states both sides.
Demonstrated when: Argues a position they do not hold, accurately.
Rights, duty, consequence
Becomes able to: names the principle behind a view.
Demonstrated when: Identifies the principle their opponent is using.
Professional and environmental ethics
Becomes able to: applies a framework to a real case.
Demonstrated when: A position that survives its strongest objection.
Consequentialism, deontology, virtue
Becomes able to: compares frameworks on one case.
Demonstrated when: A case where two frameworks conflict, and a defended choice.
Moral uncertainty · Intergenerational justice
Becomes able to: constructs an original argument.
Demonstrated when: Philosophical writing treated as argument rather than opinion.
Genuine connections
Qualification mapping
All supported systemsConceptually aligned
TOK's treatment of knowledge claims maps directly onto this World's later bands.
Supports preparation
Perspective analysis and argued research are the assessed skills.
Related
Overlap is partial; the WSA work is substantially more demanding than the curriculum requires.
The World School Atelier does not award, register or guarantee any qualification. These are mappings that show where your child's demonstrated work sits in relation to external frameworks, so that a family can plan. Entry requirements, specifications and recognition change; verify each with the awarding body before making decisions.