Philosophy for Children is a partnership project between a primary and a secondary class. The project is a workshop on philosophy led by the pupils of P5 and S6, with the help of their respective teachers.

This philosophy workshop aims to promote a culture of dialogue as an undeniable right, with a view to an active education centred on the ethical, social and civic values of the individual. In a dialogical perspective, the search for truth is carried out in a process of co-construction, through mutual understanding between students of different ages. These are the characteristics of democratic and interactive learning, in which the teacher plays a role of animation and coaching, while the class group is configured as an autonomous research community in positive interdependence.

Its purpose

The Philosophy for Children project aims in particular to educate young people in citizenship, through the European and intercultural dimension, and democratic coexistence. Through the practice of philosophy, young people turn their reflection towards questions related to the very meaning of life and experience of the person in the human community. Moreover, the interests and needs expressed by young people are often addressed to “philosophically relevant” questions, involving complex thinking.

Its contents

The project is structured around discussion workshops with a philosophical focus, using quotations from philosophy, aphorisms, tales from different cultures, as well as texts developed by the students themselves in their L1 (P5) and philosophy (S6) courses.

As examples, fragments of the Presocratics, tales from the Buddhist tradition, Sufis, philosophical dialogues.

Considering the discrepancies between the timetable of Primary and Secondary pupils, the implementation of the project cannot take the form of an additional constraint. The frequency of the workshops is therefore monthly and takes the form of one hour of discussion organised in class – or in a virtual classroom (via the application “Teams”).

Some of the workshops are recorded using digital audio and video equipment. Some of these audio documents are mastered in order to compose podcasts focused on specific questions. Other sessions, thanks to streaming technologies, are audio/video recording of the sessions with the “Stream” tool (Microsoft 365).