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The Origin
When we mention philosophy, we naturally think it as an obscure and mysterious study. We assume that those who learn philosophy must have excellent thinking skills and insightful wisdom to the truth of life. If we try to let children learn philosophy, isn’t casting pearls before swine?
For most of us, we think that children don’t have “higher order thinking ability”. However, contemporary psychological studies show that children could actually have unimaginable powerful thinking abilities. Children may not only be able to study philosophy, but may also love philosophizing. Philosophy starts with wonder, and children are at the age of curiosity; therefore, philosophical education is the best way to enable them to think freely. On the contrary, by the nurturing of duck-feeding education, this higher order thinking ability will silently drift away.
Through philosophy for children, we hope to develop their innate interests in order to think about cosmos, nature, human values and synthetic thinking power. Although children can think, they need to communicate with others to develop their argumentative skills.
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The Development
Philosophy for children was founded by British Philosopher Matthew Lipman in about 1970. He found that most university students were weak at reasoning techniques; therefore, he started to develop teaching materials and methods for children in order to enable progress of their thinking skills. Matthew Lipman’s first published novel, “Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery”, peaked the public’s interest and thus: the idea of philosophy for children was born.
In the seventies, the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children was found in America; a set of philosophy teaching materials for primary and secondary curriculum was compiled which include children’s literature and teachers’handbooks. Students who joined this program showed significant improvement in critical thinking skills and comprehension skills.
In 1985, educators from different countries founded the International Council for Philosophical Inquire with Children, and international meetings of philosophy for children have been held regularly since then. Besides this, in order to facilitate the studies of philosophy for children, journals about them were printed one after the other. Among these, the areas of “Thinking”, “Analytical Teaching”and “Critical and Creative Thinking”were most important. Nowadays, many kindergarten, primary and secondary schools among 50 countries possess the idea of philosophy for children including China, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Holland, Mexico and Bazil.
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