Philosophy With Children

Ever since I graduated (or rather, since my first Epistemology 350 class with Ann Baker at the UW) I have pined to “do philosophy”.

Sometimes other parts of life have pushed other priorities higher or simply made me fall asleep whenever I cracked a book, but the “pining” was always there.

It’s been about 17 years now since I graduated but (isn’t it always this way, when you least expect it) an opportunity has now bubbled to the surface.

I attended a demonstration with TheWeeOne at the UW a couple of weeks ago where Program Director, Jana Mohr Lone illustrated how she and some of her 4th & 5th grade students from Whittier Elementary do philosophy. (If you have an hour you can watch it all here – http://vimeo.com/62221848
If you only have 30 min – watch the 1st half)

I won’t say it blew my mind, because since I took those first classes I recognized, from a distance at least, the potential in kids for philosophy. Kids tend to have a questioning nature and that is a perfect fit for philosophical enquiry but…

…it did blow my mind because now I recognized, quite plainly, that I could do that too. Heck, I even try sometimes with The Mermaids, and while we struggle to get traction with each other;
Usually me with a question like

What is color?

and they with something more like

Can you dress my Barbie?

I’m usually forcing it.

But I still recognized that, quite on my own, I was doing some of the things I was observing up on that stage – although this session was executed with loads of skill and precision and patience.

The keystone this time, for me, was homeschooling.
Since we (TheMommy) started home-schooling The Mermaids so many options have been exposed and The Mermaids have responded so well that, in all seriousness, the urge to do philosophy fell into place alongside of plain capability right next to the challenge and slightly to the left of probability.

So I sent an email to the director of the School District HOME program – we all talked – she liked it – and bada-bing next September I’ll be leading an enrichment class of up to twelve 3rd, 4th, & 5th graders in what I’m calling

Philosophy With Children

I’m a wee bit excited (yet I can’t abdicate my other, albeit limited, homeschooling commitments).
Yee hoo!

Here’s an excerpt from the wikipedia page on kinda how this works;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_for_Children
In a typical enquiry, a group would be presented with a thought-provoking stimulus such as a text, image, picture book, or video clip. Some time may be spent identifying the concepts raised by the stimulus, and then participants frame their own philosophical questions in response to the stimulus and vote for the one they wish to explore. The ensuing discussion usually takes place in a circle, with the teacher/facilitator intervening to push the thinking to a deeper level but aspiring to allow the discussion to follow the emerging interests of the group.