Philosophical Enquiry

The central feature of a Philosophy with Children programme is the community of enquiry in the classroom, where children are encouraged to talk and listen to each other, and to discuss philosophical ideas.

Historically, a large portion of the curriculum has been concerned with feeding children with facts, which they were to digest unconditionally. Now more than ever, the rate of change in the world is so fast, that when children leave school the facts they have learned at 10 or 12 will by and large be obsolete. Philosophy enables pupils to develop powers to evaluate and judge adequately and to think critically about what they learn, and this leads to the development of thinking skills.

A community of enquiry then, delves into problems and questions to which there is no immediate or obvious answer, and which by their very nature will throw up many more questions and perhaps doubts about the original questions. Philosophical questions are often like paradoxes. The aim is not to teach philosophy to children - it is not a stuffing in of information but a method of developing children's thinking and feeling and drawing out the inate wisdom. Socrates believed that through dialogue each person could come to an understanding of the issues involved for themselves. This makes the knowledge gained from such an enquiry the pupils own.

Through a Philosophy with Children programme:

• Thinking skills are developed. These include information handling, reasoning, creative thinking, evaluating.
• Emotional intelligence is developed. Through this, children develop self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.
• Spiritual intelligence is developed. This is not in the narrow sense, but includes having vision and values, and beginning to enquire into questions such as, "Who am I?"

The potential value of the Philosophy with Children programme is immense, and benefits not only the children who take part in it but also society as a whole. This begins with small units such as the family or the classroom, then moves to the larger such as the school, or as children grow up, to society at large. The method is inclusive, and the less able are just as likely to benefit as the more able - background and abilities are immaterial. True dialogue (or dialectic to use the socratic term) is extremely powerful, and allows the learner to engage with the subject at deeper levels than usual.

Professor Matthew Lipman writes - "when a class moves to become a community of enquiry, it accepts the discipline of logic and scientific method; it practices listening to one another, learning from one another, building on one another's ideas, respecting one another's point of view, and yet demanding that claims be warranted by evidence and reasons."

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