Making P4C Happen

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The stress on performance and results can squeeze out the joys of learning and teaching. That depresses performance rather than improving it.

One way to reverse that is to spend some time, not on making sure you’ve got the right answers, but on learning to love questions. And when questions were being handed out, philosophy was first in the queue.

Is it better to give up your space in a lifeboat to save a mother and infant twins, or to stay put and push out an old man instead?

Would it be better to be rich and ugly, or poor but beautiful?

Is this a proper question?

Is the hole in a polo part of the polo?

Exploring philosophical questions like these and creating your own is an enjoyable challenge for youngsters – and their teachers. While gifted education is where I got started with philosophy, something about the playfulness and freedom of philosophy brings out gifts in children who haven’t shone elsewhere.

Whether it’s a workshop with pupils, a staff training day, or a tailor made philosophy camp,  run events that create enthusiasm and confidence about tackling big ideas.

To engage everyone, I use storytelling, P4C, ideas from outdoor education, role-playing games — a peculiar but effective mixture born of my rather odd career.

Participants have the opportunity “to think to the fullest extent of my brain”, as one put it.

And because the thinking involved is very collaborative, the events are also enjoyable and help to create and reinforce friendships and respect between participants.

Of course, it’s all very well providing an exciting day for staff or pupils. But what happens afterwards? To be blunt about it, at least 90% of the training courses I attended as a teacher were a waste of time. The training was good and I was  always fired up with enthusiasm on the day, but with all the competing pressures of the daily routine, all those children staking a claim to a bit of my brain, my best intentions of putting new ideas into practice got crowded out.

That’s why the theme running through my workshops, training and resources is providing sustained support to make thinking fun. The email bulletin is one way I do that. Maintaining dialogue with people who have been on courses is another. Have a click around and see what takes your fancy. Here are a few places to begin:

Philosophy Workshops for gifted children and increasingly for mixed ability groups. Very interactive sessions that combine deep thinking with teambuilding games. Suitable for Years 5-13.

P4C INSET. Great value twilight, 1 or 2 day and weekend courses for staff in the Philosophy for Children pedagogy.

Please click here to download a copy of theMenu of Workshops and INSET (PDF format), and click here check out the Free Stuff page for free Philosophy for Children resources.

Serious thinking can be seriously fun