Can the Philosophy for Children program function in the formal educational institutions of our country today? Provide an account on whether its methodology and curriculum serves as effective means to educate elementary and high school Filipino children.
The Philosophy for Children program seeks to foster inclinations towards philosophy among children through the community of inquiry. It is supposed to be incorporated in the child's education in order to develop the child's thinking and reasoning abilities. The program ideally complements the present structure of education. The proposal is to include the program in the regular school curriculum as a series of lessons attended by the child at least two times a week.
The traditional school and classroom setup does not fully develop the natural gift and curiosity of children. At worst, traditional schooling may even cause the child to lose interest in learning. Philosophy classes will be held to address this problem of the traditional schooling setup. The physical conditions of the class, the method used and the nature of discussion differ significantly from that of the traditional classroom setup. In the philosophy class the children and the teacher sit to form a circle. A philosophical story or a part of a philosophical novel is read aloud and then reviewed by the children. After the allotted thinking time, the children share and write individual points for discussion. A topic will be chosen as the focus of the discussion and the topic is explored by this community of inquiry. The story stimulates the students to think, ask questions and deliberate on certain issues.
The curriculum consists of ...