Can primary pupils do philosophy?

Abstract

Reasoning, like problem solving, is not necessarily a complex skill that only older children or adolescents can do. Matthew Lipman, the founder of the Philosophy for Children (P4C) programme, has shown that students from K-12 can reason and do philosophy. The P4C programme introduces pupils to philosophical issues through the discussion of selected passages in the novel. It uses characters in novels to model the discovery of both formal and informal rules of thought. Henry Park Primary embarked on the P4C programme in January 1993. Henry Park feels that it is necessary to cultivate from young the skills and techniques of thinking and to teach children to question, analyze and justify their own views. The P4C programme serves as an instrument to develop good reasoning and questioning skills for the children. This paper reports the experiences of the pupils and teachers in the P4C programme in Henry Park.