Should Philosophy Be Taught To Children?

This essay will examine such evidence as well as the arguments relating to the benefits that not only children can arise from philosophy but also how this can as a consequence benefit the society they live in . This will involve a discussion of the issue of whether philosophy should be taught to children, as well as the possible benefits children can receive from learning philosophy.

There are many ways in which the characteristics that can be learned from philosophy which is beneficial to children. By studying philosophy, it provides children with the required language and vocabulary that allows them to participate more effectively in the development of discussions and decision making. ( Boronski and Hassan, 2015, pg 219-223) . This demonstrates

Being able to study philosophical skills, it is essentially a good way of making them prepared to for the demands of their examinations. In most exams in the 21st century, marks are given for the student who is able please the examiner with an answer that provides real depth of understanding. The best way of preparing students to produce answers like this is to teach them to think well. This demonstrates by undertaking philosophy in education, it is useful for children as it enables them to learn adequate key skills that is essential for ones learning and examination in the future. An example of philosophy benefiting students in term of education is demonstrated in the study by Gorard, Siddiqui and Huat See (2015) where a key conclusion was made based on using philosophy for children that the ‘evaluation found evidence that P4C (philosophy 4 children ) had a positive impact on pupils’ Key Stage 2 (KS2) progress in reading and maths. This is significant in that P4C was not explicitly focused on improving KS2 outcomes, yet managed to lift maths and reading attainment relative to ‘business as usual’. This can be again linked with that by children taking philosophy it allows them to reach the level of skills required for their age which would allow them to prepared and equipped for exams in the

It is said that philosophy should be undertaken from college ages, where the child’s mind is more developed and matured enough to understand what philosophy is and how they can apply this to their education as well as their daily lives. Thus, this shows that philosophy is not beneficial to children until they reach a certain age. In Piaget perspective (1933) claims that children are not capable of philosophizing, certainly not before the ages of eleven or twelve in comparison to higher level thinking with children. To question one thoughts to think deep into situations, and to re-evaluate choices shall be difficult for a child to do so. This is because, in terms of his stages theory, they are unable to think in abstract terms or to employ meta-cognitive reflection on themselves. Piaget states that ‘children have different adult thinking’.’ In other words, the way a child made sense of and interpreted the world was very different from that of an adult’ (Bentham, n.d.) As a result, philosophy would be of little use, if not a potentially dangerous tool in their