{"ops":[{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"[Missed Part 3? "},{"attributes":{"bold":true,"link":"https://community.criticalthinking.org/blogPost.php?param=242"},"insert":"Read It Here"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"]"},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":" "},{"insert":"\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true,"bold":true},"insert":"Why Children Need to Think Philosophically [2 of 3]"},{"insert":"\n \nIn some sense we act as though we believe, and doubtless many do believe, that children have no significant capacity, need, or right to think for themselves, Many adults do not think that children can participate mindfully in the process which shapes their own minds and behavior. Of course, at the same time we often talk to our children as though they were somehow responsible for, or in control of, the ideas they express or act upon. This contradictory attitude toward children is rarely openly admitted. We need to deal explicitly with it.\n \nI believe that children have the need, the capacity, and the right to freedom of thought, and that the proper cultivation of that capacity requires an emphasis on the philosophical dimension of thought and action. Again, by ‘the philosophical dimension,’ I mean precisely the kind of deliberative thought that gives to thinkers the on-going disposition to mindfully create, analyze, and assess their own most basic assumptions, concepts, values, aims, and meanings, in effect to choose the very framework in which they think and on the basis of which they act. I would not go so far as to say, as Socrates was reputed to have said, that the unreflective life is not worth living, but I would say that an unreflective life is not a truly free life and is often a basic cause of personal and social problems. I claim at least this much, that philosophical thinking is necessary to freedom of thought and action and that freedom of thought and action are good in themselves and should be given a high priority in schooling. They are certainly essential for a democracy. How can the people rule, as the word democracy implies, if they do not think for themselves on issues of civic importance? And if they are not encouraged to think for themselves in school, why should they do so once they leave it?\n \nLet me now discuss whether children are in fact capable of this sort of freedom of thought, reflection upon ultimate meanings, values, assumptions, and concepts. The question is both conceptual and empirical. On the conceptual side, the issue is one of "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"degree."},{"insert":" Only to the degree that children are encouraged in supportive circumstances to reflect philosophically, will they develop proficiency in it. Since few parents and teachers value this sort of reflection or are adept at cultivating it, it is understandable that children soon give up their instinctive philosophical impulses (the basic "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"why"},{"insert":" and "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"what"},{"insert":" questions). It would be foolish to assume that it is the "},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"nature"},{"insert":" of children to think and act unreflectively when indeed our experience indicates that they are socialized into unreflectiveness. Since we do not encourage children to philosophize, why should they do so?\n \nFurthermore, in many ways we penalize children for philosophizing. Children will sometimes innocently entertain an idea in conflict with the ideas of their parents, teachers, or peers. Such ideas are often ridiculed and the children made to feel ashamed of their thoughts. It is quite common, in other words, for people to penalize unconventional thought and reward conventional thought. When we think only as we are rewarded to think, however, we cease to think freely or deeply. Why should we think for ourselves if doing so may get us into trouble and if teachers, parents, and powerful peers provide authoritative didactic answers for us? Before we decide that children cannot think for themselves about basic ideas and meanings, we ought to give them a real and extended opportunity to do so. No society has yet done this. Unless we are willing to exercise some faith in freedom of thought, we will never be in a position to reap the benefits of it or to discover its true limits, if any.\n"}]}