Read “The Goldfish” and answer,
What conclusions can you draw about Lucy, and Amy’s level of cognitive thought based on a Piagetian framework? From a Piagetian perspective, how does the dead fish create disequilibrium for Amy?
The Goldfish
As the final school bell rings, most of the students in Ms. Bowman’s first-grade class gather their
belongs and hurry out the door. But Amy convinces her friend Lucy to linger for a few minutes while she
checks on Ringo, the class’s pet goldfish. As this week’s “animal keeper” for the class, Amy has noticed that
Ringo hasn’t eaten any of his food for the past two days. In fact, all he does now is lie sideways on the
surface of the water; he doesn’t try to swim away anymore when she touches him. With her friend looking
over her shoulder, Amy tries to give the fish a slight push towards a few flakes of food.
“He must be sleeping,” she says. “Usually all I have to do is swish the water around to make him
swim. He’s acting really weird. Maybe he’s forgotten how to eat and swim.
Lucy inspect the fish and then looks back at her friend, “I don’t know, Amy. He’s been sleeping an
awful long time. He’s not eating, either. I’ll get Ms. Bowman, and maybe she can fix him.”
Lucy hurries over to her teacher and grabs her by the hand. “Something’s wrong,” Amy declares as
Lucy and Ms. Bowman approach the fish bowl. “He’s not moving. He hasn’t eaten for a long time.”
When Ms. Bowman looks in the bowl, she realizes that Ringo has died. She delicately explains the
situation and then wraps the fish in a paper towel. She assures the girls that she will give Ringo a proper
burial as soon as she gets home.
Amy looks puzzled. “But …but…when my grandpa died last summer, he went away to heaven and
didn’t come back. Ringo’s still here. If he’s dead, he should be going to heaven.”
“Do you want Ringo to go to heaven?” Amy nods, and her teacher smiles. “Well, then, I’ll bet he will
go there just as soon as he possibly can.”
As the two girls walk home, Lucy poses a question. “Do you have to eat in heaven?”
“I don’t know,” Amy responds. “I suppose so, or else you’d be hungry all the time.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” Lucy pauses for a moment, then asks, “Well, do you have to go potty in
heaven?”
Amy rolls her eyes, indignantly puts her hands on her hips, and replies, “Of course not, silly! You
know Mommies and Ms. Bowman make us go potty before we go anywhere!”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” laughs Lucy.
