Do You Need to Know Philosophy to Teach Philosophy to Children? A Comparison of Two Approaches

Abstract

Introduction: After reading Tom Wartenberg's (2009) book, Big ideas for little kids: Teaching philosophy through children's literature, and implementing the lessons as he prescribes, my students assert with confidence, "You don't need to know philosophy to teach philosophy to children," and after having been trained in Matthew Lipman's approach to teaching philosophy to children, I shudder. The question, then, is whether these two approaches for teaching philosophy to children are compatible.