Kids & Philosophy: A cinematic feast
Anyone keen to foster children’s curiosity and philosophical thinking is sure to savour this banquet of short films. Bon appétit! Our appetiser is Zia Hassan’s 9 year old discusses the […]
Tag Archives: philosophy in schools
World Philosophy Day: What about the kids?
We know that children benefit in diverse and important ways from engaging in philosophical questioning and dialogue. So why do so few primary schools in Australia dedicate class time to […]
Are philosophers still relevant?
(Or, Earning Your Keep in the Ivory Tower) In a memorable passage from his Essays (published in 1580), Michel de Montaigne describes philosophers as one-eyed ranters who do nothing but […]
Big Questions for intergalactic philosophers
Later this week, 52 novice philosophers will find themselves in an imaginary universe of zero-gravity waterslide parks, Brussel sprout ice cream, dragon appointments and a spectacular array of perplexing questions. […]
Unguided learning: Subversive Activity (Part 3)
Independent thinking rightly belongs at the heart of education, as I suggested in Part 2. As students get increasingly adept at using tools of sceptical and imaginative enquiry, they become […]
On Questioning and Silence: Subversive Activity (Part 2)
Some of the educational reforms considered radical in the late ‘60s have come to be accepted – even institutionalised – in our current school system (as we saw in Part […]
Teaching as a Subversive Activity Redux (Part 1)
I’ve been reading Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner’s 1969 manifesto calling for a revolution in education. Over the past half-century, many of its radical proposals […]
Boot camp for intellectual virtues?
On the lookout for new ways to help kids improve their thinking, I came across the Intellectual Virtues & Education Project (IVEP). And the more I learnt about it, the […]
Helping kids develop moral judgement
Unless children can think ethically, they won’t be able to behave ethically in a way that’s resilient to outside pressures. This is the last of three posts in which I […]
Do children need moral guidelines?
How should a facilitator respond when students express controversial opinions in Ethics? Here I share my email conversation with a friend who volunteers as a facilitator in the NSW Primary […]
