Teaching Philosophy to Pre-School and Primary School Children

The correct training of children during the first years of their life plays a very important role in preventing certain learning problems or decreasing them. Moreover, it results in life-long benefits for both families and society, for example, reinforcing moral values, encouraging sociability, and prompting social mobilization. Philosophy for Children attempts to disseminate philosophy among children for the purpose of teaching logical reasoning and judgment to them within the framework of this discipline. Philosophical inquiry in classes at primary school or nursery school provides children with the chance of becoming familiar with their own world and discover what is valuable and praiseworthy therein. The main job of a teacher is to prepare children for learning. Previous studies indicate that this task begins during the preschool period or even before that. Therefore, a new program called “Philosophy for Children” has been initiated in order to introduce philosophy into school curricula. This Program employs some types of practice and tasks in the class in order to teach children how to think. By using this program, trained school teachers can encourage children to think more profoundly about the ideas behind their school work.