Philosophy For Children - Programs, Competitions, and Publications

Programs, Competitions, and Publications

There are a number of college-level academic philosophy programs in the United States that do outreach to public schools, most notably at the University of Chicago, California State University Long Beach, Mount Holyoke College, Montclair State University, Michigan State University, University of Hawai`i at Manoa and Plattsburgh State University Of New York.

At the University of Chicago, students in the college teach in schools on Chicago South Side through the University's Civic Knowledge Project. The class, known as Winning Words, is an after school program that works with elementary, middle and high school students in Chicago. The program aims to engage and inspire local youth through an education in philosophy, reasoning and the verbal arts of dialogue and rhetoric; building self-confidence and exposing its students to a wide range of philosophical material. Recognized by the American Philosophical Association, the program provides an introduction to philosophy and Socratic dialogue and includes writing, public speaking, debate, drama, poetry and art. The material uses the Socratic method to engage students and to encourage the use of critical thinking, reasoning and expression. Such modes of thought and communication foster the sense of wonder that is at the root of serious introspection, intellectual growth, and ethical reflection. February 2012, the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Pre-Collegiate Philosophy featured Winning Words and the Civic Knowledge Project in its Central Division meeting.

In addition, several independent centers have arisen including the Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children in Seattle, Washington. The Northwest Center has expanded from work in the Seattle area to running workshops throughout Washington state on how to integrate philosophy education into K-12 education.

Before the Department of Education cut funding for such programs in the early 1990s, there were over 5,000 programs in K-12 schools nationwide which engaged young people in philosophical reflection or critical thinking, more generally. This number has dropped substantially.

The Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, which has been recognized by the APA for excellence and innovation, utilizes Lipman's method, exposing children to philosophically stimulating narrative to encourage them to create and ask their own philosophical questions, actively in the K-12 classroom through a longstanding partnership with the Montclair public school system. Students are encouraged to ask their questions and the philosophical facilitator (a member of the IAPC) helps the children to develop philosophical skills and dispositions of critical, caring, and creative thinking in order to get the young students to come to reasonable judgment about what is "best to do or believe," in response to the initial question. IAPC has a large teacher preparation component and provides teacher manuals that include discussion plans specifically designed to assist in the facilitation of philosophical discussions that are general enough to answer most student questions. In addition to working directly with schoolchildren, members of the IAPC work with several constituencies, including professional and pre-professional educators, educational administrators and policy-makers, and faculty and students of education, philosophy and related disciplines. IAPC has trained educators worldwide to successfully implement their curriculum in their home states and countries. Philosophy and Children organization offers introductory workshops and Certificate courses in schools and graduate teachers in Australia.

There is an annual Philosophy Slam competition for kids in grades K-12. Younger children are encouraged to submit artwork which illustrates their philosophical reflections while older children submit increasingly sophisticated written work.

In the UK the University of Leeds now offers a students into schools programme called the Big Think.

Educational charity The Philosophy Foundation (formerly The Philosophy Shop) trains philosophy graduates to do philosophy with primary and secondary school children, and places them in schools nationwide. They also train teachers in the transferable skills of philosophy (questioning, thinking skills and discourse skills), and are encouraging an enquiry based approach to education at all levels, including tertiary.

UK organisations such as Thinking Space offer consultation and project design and delivery for schools interested in philosophy for children. Organisations such as Cap-a-Pie take a creative approach, fusing P4C (Philosophy for Children) and Drama-in-Learning to create learning experiences that make philosophical thought visible. SAPERE is a UK charity that trains teachers in P4C nationwide.

The growth of a community between European philosophy with children (PWC) practitioners culminated in the establishment of “Stichting SOPHIA —The European Foundation for the Advancement of Doing Philosophy with Children” in 1993, with Eulalia Bosch (Catalonia) as its President, and Karel van der Leeuw (the Netherlands) Secretary. Following the motto of the European Community (now the EU) – ‘ unity through diversity’, SOPHIA supported the development of doing philosophy with children within all the different European cultures and languages, and nurtured the community among practitioners as the foundation for collaborative work and mutual development. Many groundbreaking and innovative projects have resulted from SOPHIA members working together, often funded by the EU. For example pwc projects working with art, citizenship, excluded children, architecture, anti-racism, music, community development and more.