Big Ideas for Little Minds

What does it mean to be fair?
Are some people better than others?
What is a friend?
What is love?
Is greed wrong?

These are the types of questions being discussed by students as young as kindergarten.

And it’s not just the teachers asking the questions.

These kinds of questions are raised in philosophical discussions based on texts the students have read, said James Kelly, associate professor of philosophy (at MU) at Miami University’s Hamilton campus.

Twenty-five teachers from as far away as Iceland to as near as Cincinnati came to Miami this past summer to learn a method of teaching from Kelly, called philosophy for children. Through the program, the teachers learned how to help their students think critically.

Philosopher Matthew Lipman introduced philosophy for children in 1969. This philosophy is to help children to make good judgments, to resolve moral conflicts and to learn how to think critically. Kelly said this philosophy would help to, “educate children to not only be good architects, engineers and doctors, but also… good persons.”

Kelly’s interest in philosophy for children started because his studies of the foundations of the humanities kept leading to questions on values and morals. His interest is to bring the humanities to the core of education in order to advance the culture and to improve the future. Questions such as “Why aren’t children growing up knowing how to engage in critical thinking on values issues?” kept popping up in his work. In the process of looking for the answers to his questions, he attended a seminar at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children in 1999.

That seminar led him to start his own institute at Miami. Kelly has led an institute on philosophy for children at Miami for the last four years.
The first three classes, in the summers of 2001, 2002 and 2003, were for local teachers only. Each lasted one week and the participants had to commute.

The most current institute, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, was open to teachers who taught American students. Of the 65 applicants, 25 were selected to come stay in Oxford for four weeks. The participants were given access to the libraries, parking passes, a $2,800 stipend and six hours of graduate credit for no extra cost. The College of Arts and Science helped fund part of the institute.
Each applicant had to submit a resume and an essay about how this program would be helpful to them and their students. Some of those essays talked about guiding students to come to the intellectual conclusion that they are valuable to society, creating environments open to discussion, and introducing big ideas to little minds.

Kelly said that many teachers are afraid of moral/character education because they do not want to instill in children any one set of values or beliefs. Kelly said that fear is showing up in today’s culture with students who are reluctant to morally judge other people and other cultures.

The method of teaching children how to think critically and to take responsibility for their thoughts has been criticized from many directions. Kelly said a few parents don’t want their children questioning their rules or beliefs, and he also said there is a potential for difficulties with some religions.

When children start discovering and justifying their own values systems, they learn to ask others to support their beliefs, said Kelly, and that can make things difficult for parents. “How do you argue against being rational,” said Kelly, “It’s hard for parents to say they don’t want their children thinking.”

With this philosophy being used in the classroom, children will start to automatically ask “why?,” which could carry over into the political part of what it means to be a citizen , said Kelly.

Even with the cultural criticism on this method of teaching, the practice is growing. There are dozens of Web sites dedicated to philosophy for children. The National Endowment for the Humanities gave 15 grants last year, one of which helped fund Kelly’s institute this past summer.

“My school doesn’t formally have a philosophy for children program, but after having been part of the group last summer, I have noticed a significant difference in my approach to teaching reading to my students,” said Joy Frerichs, who teaches kindergarten, first-, second- and fourth-grade students in Chatsworth, Georgia.

In one of Frerichs’ fourth-grade discussions, students were trying to find the meaning of a poem. After a few minutes of discussion, they discovered that some poems were for pure enjoyment.

In Willie Brown, Jr.’s seventh grade classroom in Birmingham, Alabama, he gives his students “opportunities to explore topics they’ve not given much thought to, if any at all… such as: What is love? What is equality? What does it mean to be fair? What is a friend?”

“The responses students make to these questions… are absolutely mind blowing!” he said.

Responses from Brown’s seventh-graders on the questions of “What is love?” and “What is a friend?”

“Love is a strong, passionate desire you feel in your heart for another individual.”
“Love is an emotion that only you can describe, often there are no exact words to cover the full meaning.”
“Love is really all around us… can’t you see it?”
“A friend is hard to find.”
“A friend is someone who sticks by you through both good and bad times.”
“A friend will be there for you.”
“A friend is a person you share your secret thoughts with.”

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