Jana Mohr Lone: ‘Mommy, why do the days just keep coming?’ - Philosophy with children
Central to our work at the Center for Philosophy for Children at the University of Washington is the conviction that we ought to challenge beliefs about children’s limited capacities, and to expand our understanding of the nature of philosophy and who is capable of engaging in it. As one seven-year-old put it: ‘In philosophy, we’re growing our minds.’
Most of our philosophy sessions with children are in public
elementary schools; the aim is to discover what topics the children want to
think about, and to foster discussions and reflection about these subjects. I
don’t think of what I do as teaching philosophy, though. The
point is not to educate children about the history of philosophy, nor to
instruct them in the arguments made by professional philosophers.
Children’s questioning can constitute the most primary of
philosophical activities: reflecting on the meaning of ordinary experiences and
concepts in order to develop an understanding of the world, others and
themselves. When I ask children what questions they wonder about, their
responses typically include questions such as: why am I here? Who am I? Why is
there hatred in the world? What happens when we die? How do I know the right
way to live? One parent told me that her three-year-old daughter keeps asking
her: ‘Mommy, why do the days just keep coming?’….
https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-do-philosophy-for-and-with-children
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