Teaching Elementary Philosophy?

“The world is new to them and they want to figure things out,” says Professor Matthews, who has written extensively about children and philosophy. “Young children very often engage in reasoning that professional philosophers can recognize as philosophical, but typically their parents or teachers don’t react in a way that encourages them. They might say, ‘That’s cute,’ but they don’t engage the children in thinking further about whatever the issue is.”

This fits in to our conversation about deeper level thinking.  The New York Times article is here. It is about a philosopher, Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg, who is teaching elementary students (second graders) philosophy through children's literature.  He wrote a book about it called, "Big Ideas for Little Kids: Teaching Philosophy Through Children’s Literature” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009)

Published: April 8, 2010
By ABBY GOODNOUGH