Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article is a response to criticism of my book Big Ideas for Little Kids. The main topics addressed are: Who is the audience for the book? Can people without formal philosophical training can be good facilitators of elementary school philosophy discussions? Is it important to assess attempts to teach philosophy in elementary school? Should philosophy discussions among schoolchildren aim for consensus or is disagreement an acceptable conclusion? I also discuss specific criticisms of the elementary school philosophy course I present, and discuss the goals of doing philosophy with children. Finally, I suggest how the experience of teaching philosophy to young children using picture books can enrich introductory college courses.

Keywords

children facilitation introductory course picture books philosophy

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Walker

Wartenberg

Winner

(2011) Teaching children philosophy: Early exposure to dialogue facilitates reasoning about subjectivity. Unpublished manuscript.

Wartenberg

(1998) Teaching women philosophy (as a feminist man). In: Digby

(ed.) Men Doing Feminism, pp. 131–45. New York and London: Routledge.

Wartenberg

(1999) Descartes’ mood: The question of feminism in the correspondence with Elisabeth. In: Bordo

(ed.) Feminist Interpretations of René Descartes, pp. 190–212. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Elementary school philosophy: A response

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References