The Kids of Harry: The Embodiment of Philosophic World Views

Abstract

Introduction:  Two problems facing the beginning Philosophy for Children teacher are recognizing what is philosophic about a philosophic dialogue and determining what to do when a child expresses philosophic thought.  Frequent reflection about these problems led me again and again to the same conclusion - teachers need to be supplied with a new way to listen to students in order to teach Philosophy for Children.  A way of listening in which knowledge is viewed as the child's servant instead of the child being viewed as a servant to knowledge.  In the world of conventional education, teachers tend to listen to students through a pre-fabricated epistemology.  Right and wrong, correct and incorrect have already been determined within a framework called the curriculum.  Statements which vary from the official knowledge of the text are greeted by corrections.  There are many good reasons for this - the fact that the text and curriculum are supposed to represent established factual data of a discipline; that teachers need "objective" criteria with which to evaluate student progress; that teachers are instructed not to relinquish their intellectual authority; that the State and community want to be secure in knowing what teachers are teaching children; and so on.  Our purpose here is not to look into the reasons for the standard ways in which teachers listen but to suggest an alternate cognitive stance for the teacher of pre-college philosophy.