Schoolyard fighters taught philosophy

[Thinking Skins]

Schoolyard fighters taught philosophy

By staff writers

February 07, 2008 02:55pm

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CHILDREN as young as five are taking lessons in philosophy - in between learning the alphabet and painting pictures - to stem playground violence.

Primary school students who used to “thump each other” in the playground were now discussing questions like “is life a journey?”, “do we ever fully appreciate what we have?” and “if life is a puzzle, does it need to be complicated?”, the Daily Mail newspaper has reported.

Staff at the UK’s Gallions Primary school in London said they have observed the behaviour of their students improve a lot since the philosophy lessons began six years ago.

Head teacher Paul Jackson told the newspaper that the "Philosophy for Children” courses have been a success for the school.

“Gallions opened in 1999 on a new estate in the East End (of London), with all the problems that an inner-London estate brings,” Mr Jackson said.

“Virtually everyone that came here had some kind of emotional or behavioural difficulty.”

The school’s philosophy teacher, Lisa Naylor, told the Daily Mail that despite some students becoming aggressive in debates, the children were more likely to discuss rather than to fight.

“I have witnessed children who barely spoke English and children who had very little self-confidence debating fervently whether the sound of rain on the window was or wasn’t music” Ms Naylor said.

Since the program began, more than 150 other schools have bought teaching kits and DVDs from Gallions, staff said.