Does Philosophical Dialogue Cause Children to Reject Adult Authority?

Abstract

Introduction: Annie’s classroom was a special environment, it was full of animals during what she called the “animal project.” That week, a crayfish was killed by other crayfish as it was put into the tank. The children saw that and Annie started the philosophy session with this event. To start a philosophy session, as Annie always did, she used two puppets to make a little theatrical dialogue on why the crayfish may have killed the other one: they don’t have enough space, they don’t have enough food, but they also happened to fight for a girlfriend… Annie’s story evolved to explore why people fight, which then became the question picked up by children. They first gave answers to address why people fight, but quickly moved toward exploring if there are good reasons to fight. (Field notes)
—Kindergartner in Annie’s classroom¹