So as briefly as possible;

In my country, philosophy is taught at an academic level (pre-academic is also possible in some institutions as an optional course but I don't know what that consists of) either on it's own as a subject, or as part of a combined qualification called PPE (politics, philosophy, economics).

Generally courses are closely tied to career paths (and social status), so the philosophy subject indicates that you wish to be an academic or a retail worker or unemployed, while the PPE subject indicates that you wish to join the ranks of the ruling classes.

Of course philosophy is touched on in other subjects too (mostly the 'humanities'), but these are the two key areas.

Something I think a lot about is an attempt at an initiative (by academics) to get philosophy taught in schools, at a primary school age (so ages 4-11 ish). It didn't go anywhere I don't think because of austerity.

So I have some questions, I've not studied education/pedagogy btw so if someone else happens to have that'd be an interesting perspective (but thinking is for everyone i don't mean only answer if you've got a piece of paper saying you can);

  1. Can you teach philosophy to children that young?

  2. How would you go about it? I mean, what approaches or cirriculum?

  3. For anarchists, what would a less structured philosophy education look like, and the same questions about age and approaches?

  4. Should you teach philosophy that young?

Another thing - I know in my country at least, that science education is taught in a not-strictly-true way when children are young and then retaught in a more accurate way at academic level.

I don't like this approach instinctively it feels like lying but maybe it's necessary, and if so how would you present philosophy to children in a comprehensible way?

  • ShroomunistTendancy [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    ok, so;

    age 4-6 would be rules of engagement

    age 6-8 would be teaching via stories, and ethics and themes (by themes you mean a kind of introduction to thinking-about-thinking, or finding an extra layer to a narrative?)

    8-11 is thought experiments and history of philosophy

    I think that all makes sense - science tells us there are developmental stages to the body & mind and we should try to map what's taught to those.

    A few thoughts tho in response:

    "kids’ tendency to always ask questions and to encourage that, perhaps by answering questions in a way that nudges children in the direction of higher levels of abstraction."

    This is something I wonder about a lot, because we teach children (and they teach themselves) praxis up to a certain age (I mean for example learning to put shapes in the 'correct' slots in a puzzle, which is presumably teaching a kind of abstraction in a practically applicable way). And then they sort of start asking for theory at some point, right - where they keep asking 'why' all the time.

    So I wonder if that 4-6 age isn't a good place to start with basic theory? I guess this is what you mean by nudging toward further abstraction, and yes it's hard to envisage but it's one of the answers i'm seeking :D

    or is the asking why simply a child experimenting with causality and social relations there's no reason to think of that stage as anything other - like you can answer anything and they won't care?

    "read a simple fable, identify the moral/theme of the story, discuss whether they agree with the moral or not, and try to give their reasoning."

    yes this is a good approach i think, but I wonder - should we teach first the methods by which you can reason about morals? I mean, for example, somehow introduce at that age deontology and consequentialism as concepts? Or do children naturally seek out approaches and that is the point of the lesson, to get them to form those methods on their own?

    And also, other than ethics, should we be teaching for example epistemology in some manner at that age, even in the form of a fable or story?

    And lastly, would you say philosophy would be best taught as it's own subject (for children i mean), or always as part of others?