Welcome to the Philosophy Class!
“He who asserts either that it is too soon to study philosophy, or that the hour is passed, is like a man who would say that the time has not yet come to be happy, or that it is too late to be happy."
Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus)
Our Classes
We started with Children aged 4-6. The size of a class was 8 to 12 children.
We are now having a class for older children. The size of the class is 6 to 8 children.
What is Philosophy for Children?
Learning how to think
Philosophy For Children (P4C) does not refer to teaching children traditional philosophy, rather, it is a pedagogic approach conceived by Matthew Lipman in the late 1960’s, that centres on teaching thinking skills and the ability to question and reason. It is a student-led, enquiry based approach to learning. Philosophy for Children is practiced in more than 60 countries around the world using a wide variety of materials to instigate questioning and inquiry.
Philosophy, among other things, is self-conscious inquiry into the meaning of puzzling and contestable concepts. In ancient times philosophy was known as a search for wisdom or meaning, and many of the concepts philosophers have thought about for thousands of years are ones we use to structure our daily experience. "What is justice?" "What is beauty?" "How can I be sure of what I know?" "What is the right thing to do?" "What is truth?"
Ages 4 - 6
For children, those questions might be translated into: "Why is it sometimes unfair?", "What is beauty?", "What happens when I make a mistake?", "Is it all right to lie?", "Why do we have to go to school?"...
Ages 8 - 10
"What is thinking?", "What is happiness?", "Why can't we do whatever we want?", "What is truth?"...
