Doing philosophy with young children: theory, practice, and resources

The last half-century has seen a slow, tentative change in adult attitudes about young children’s capacity to think abstractly. Parents and teachers know the young child as a dramatic mixture of the concrete, sense-bound, and the transcendent, and it is just that mixture, cultivated and pursued, which makes for philosophy. Teacher resources include, not just the stories and discussion plans of the Philosophy for Children curriculum, but numerous picture books for children that suggest philosophical concepts, as well as concrete ‘object lessons’ designed to spark group dialogue.