Philosophy Goes to School

Front Cover
Temple University Press, 2010 - Education - 240 pages

Ten years ago "Philosophy in the Classroom," by Lipman, Sharp, and Oscanyan, hailed the emergence of philosophy as a novel, although in some ways highly traditional, elementary school discipline. In this sequel, Matthew Lipman examines the impact that elementary school philosophy has had, and may yet have, upon the process of education. Going beyond his earlier work to describe the contribution that training in philosophy can make in the teaching of values, he shows the applications of ethics in civics education and the ways in which aesthetics can be incorporated into areas of the curriculum related to the development of creativity.

Making reference to the contemporary educational scene, Lipman compares the K-12 Philosophy for Children curriculum to the many unsatisfactory solutions being offered in our current drive for educational excellence. He addresses the relationship of elementary school philosophy to educational reform in the areas of science, language, social studies, and writing. And he shows how philosophy can be instrumental in the difficult task of teaching values to children while avoiding both ideological indoctrination and mindless relativism.

 

Contents

Remaking the Foundations
3
Philosophy in Education
9
Education for Civic Values
47
Ethical Inquiry and the Craft of Moral Practice
73
Philosophy and Science Education at
87
Reasoning in Language at the Elementary School Level
100
Social Inquiry at the Secondary School Level
109
Thinking and Writing at the Secondary School Level
123
Implications for Educational Reform
139
The Philosophy of Childhood
191
Applying Specific Reasoning Skills
199
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Page 13 - You must have seen how youngsters, when they get their first taste of it, treat argument as a form of sport solely for purposes of contradiction. When someone has proved them wrong, diey copy his mediods to confute others, delighting like puppies in tugging and tearing at anyone who comes near them.
Page 224 - Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? New York: Random House, 1973. Livingston, Myra Cohn. "But Is It Poetry?
Page 13 - ... contradiction. When someone has proved them wrong, they copy his methods to confute others, delighting like puppies in tugging and tearing at anyone who comes near them. And so, after a long course of proving others wrong and being proved wrong themselves, they rush to the conclusion that all they once believed is false; and the result is that in the eyes of the world they discredit, not themselves only, but the whole business of philosophy. An older man will not share this craze for making a...

About the author (2010)

Matthew Lipman, Professor of Philosophy at Montclair State College and Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, is co-author of Philosophy in the Classroom and Growing Up with Philosophy (both published by Temple).

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