Why we should teach philosophy to kids

[Fearless]

"Via the BPS Research Digest: A recent study on the long-term benefits of the Socratic method. In a study of 105 children, all around 10 years old, teachers spent an hour a week for 16 months teaching lessons based on philosophical inquiry.

Socrates.png

The philosophy-based lessons encouraged a community approach to “inquiry” in the classroom, with children sharing their views on Socratic questions posed by the teacher.

The result? At the end of 16 months,

Compared with 72 control children, the philosophy children showed significant improvements on tests of their verbal, numerical and spatial abilities

And two years later, when the philosophy children were tested again, their higher scores persisted — while the lower-scoring control group were, in some cases, declining further..."

http://blog.ted.com/2007/12/13/why_we_should_t/

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[Scootaloo]

1. Just don't teach them to become philosophers

I've stumbled across so many people in my time who have "studied philosophy" and see it as some sort of achievement unto itself. They spin their wheels and go nowhere. Philosophy is a tool, a whetstone for the mind. it's not a goal, it's not a career, it's something to use.

[Fearless]

2. That's another story entirely...

I would add several other degrees to that list as well. One of which I may have!

[patrice]

11. 1+++++++++ It must live.

[historian]

3. NO HOPE FOR THAT ONE

The right religioud loonies would fight that tooth and nail. Who wants a bunch of savvy rational people loosed on the world? As Kathleen Turner so rightly quoted in her new movie A Perfect Family "I don't have to think. I'm a Catholic!!!!!!!"
Applause for that line!

[patrice]

3. Which would of course, eventually, include Logic and also the Philosophy of Science and . . .

not the same, but I think Psychology is pretty useful too.

[ashling]

5. In 2008, Brazil started requiring 3 years of philosophy in high school

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002295757

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.1/carlos_fraenkel_brazil_teaching_philosophy.php

I posted the Boston Herald story in my government class.

The official rationale for the 2008 law is that philosophy “is necessary for the exercise of citizenship.” The law—the world’s largest-scale attempt to bring philosophy into the public sphere—thus represents an experiment in democracy.

In every classroom I was at first flooded with questions: Who is this professor from Montreal and what’s he doing here? the students wondered. I quickly learned that my excitement about Brazil’s experiment with philosophy is not universally shared. “Learning how to read and write and basic mathematics is useful,” one student said. “But why should I care about Plato’s concept of the soul?”

I conceded to the class that learning philosophy for the sake of erudition may not be the best use of their time.

“But if you want to build a just and democratic society, isn’t it useful to get as clear as possible on what you mean by justice and democracy and to examine if you have good reasons to pursue these?” I asked. “And aren’t your intuitions about knowledge, goodness and beauty worth investigating?”

when I was in hs in the 60s I took "Humanities" which included philosophy, art history, culture, et al. I also had a course in "Sociology"

[JDPriestly]

6. Yes. Encourage children to approach problem solving by asking questions and

analyzing segment by segment. That is valuable.

[patrice]

12. En- courage, because they are going to find that it does take courage to do this. nt

[msongs]

7. baloney, all kids need to read is the bible. oh wait that should be rated x never mind nt

[jtuck004]

8. Paging John Dewey. John Dewey, please report to the other end of the log. n/t

[no_hypocrisy]

9. I teach ethics to Kindergartners every Sunday.

We dissect fairy tales, Aesop's Fables, and other stories. We also discuss historical figures such as Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and their decisions.

Last Sunday, we had a presentation to the rest of the Community. I read the Fable about the Lion opting not to crush an annoying fieldmouse and later, when the lion was trapped in a net, the same fieldmouse chewed the ropes to free the lion. When I used the Socratic Method to elicit what the kids got out of the story, I asked if the mouse freed the lion because it was promised money. A resounding "Noooooo!" from my class. I'm very proud of them.

[felix_numinous]

10. K&R!! Philosophy

teaches people how to think, not what to think. To me philosophy is the antidote for fundamentalism, because it can teach individuals to detect when ideas are being forced without reason, and to resist being manipulated. Ideally if people were taught how to think, they would recognize what a free society is, and the value of diversity within a society.

Thanks for this article, I think if more people were philosophers, it would clear up many of the ideological debates in mainstream media--and on this forum toute de suite!

[FBaggins]

13. Much simpler...

... it's because philoshophy teaches you how to think (sorely lacking these days)

And since the purpose of a primary/secondary education is to teach you how to learn... teaching you how to think (not what to think) should be considered essential.

[sulphurdunn]

14. The corporate model

of education for profit trends away from critical thinking that cannot be measured on a multiple choice test or that might question the assertions of the status quo. Orwell would have recognized it.