Posts Tagged ‘Kids’
Philosophy for Kids: Interviews With Children and Teachers
I had the wonderful opportunity to work with and then interview teachers and students in California and Washington DC. Here are some highlights from those interviews. I invite you to imagine your students, your own children or kids in your community having the opportunity to study philosophy. See their potential, and imagine what they can do.
There’s No Telling What Your Kids Could Do
There’s no telling what your own kids could do. After a long life and 30 years in the public school trenches, I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women.
So says John Taylor Gatto in an Ode Magazine piece that laments the current educational system (emphasis mine).
People are wells of potential waiting to be realized. Anyone who has ever sat down and had a discussion with a child comes face to face with this fact at its most resplendent. Take a moment and think about the children in your life. They may be cousins, younger siblings, children, grandchildren, students, nieces or nephews. ”There’s no telling what your own kids could do”. Those words have a powerful ring to them!
What Does Philosophy for Kids Look Like?
The idea of young children having philosophical discussions isn’t always the most intuitive one! What does that kind of conversation look like?
This is one of the first questions I’m asked when I go in to teach philosophy at an elementary school. What will the first class look like? How will you introduce philosophy to the kids?
