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Philosophy in the Classroom

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Nowadays, our educational system transmits so much nonsense that our children end up being complete idiots. Even worse : they end up being proud to be idiots ! Look at the success of the series "xxx for dummies". Of course this is all done on purpose. Capitalism thrives on idiots. Capitalism requires workers to fulfill only a very small activity within the bigger production process. Therefore school prepares us for our adult life teaching all kind of different topics totally out of context.

Now, instead of filling up the poor little heads of our children with a lot of nonsense out of context, the authors of this book propose introducing philosophy in the classroom, educating children from their natural way of questioning at different stages in their lives, and responding seriously to all those questions. The authors conceive the mind not like a passive recipient that has to be filled with useless facts, but would like the children to learn things with the same spirit that inspired the early inventors and discoverers. In this way, children would assimilate new knowledge far easier and they would understand the bigger picture. This would make them much more creative in their later life.

Such a world would be totally different. Democracy could finally become real. We would have a world full of critical workers and skeptical consumers. It wouldn't work for capitalism, that's for sure. But it would mean a lot to humanity.

This is a textbook for teachers that demonstrates how philosophical thinking can be used in teaching children. It begins with the assumption that what is taught in schools is not (and should not be) subject matter but rather ways of thinking. The main point is that the classroom should be converted into a community of inquiry, and that one can begin doing that with children. This book is based on the curriculum that Matt Lipman has developed at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children.