That realization led Mohr-Lone to set up a program in her son's preschool. She met with the children each week, guiding and encouraging them to think philosophically. "It was just wonderful," she recalls. "We talked about things like what it means to be alive, and whether you can be someone's friend if he or she doesn't think of you as a friend. I started thinking about how philosophy could help school-age children develop their critical thinking and reasoning."

	Jana Mohr-Lone. Photo by Scott Areman.

Mohr-Lone created a nonprofit organization, Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children, and explored possible approaches to introducing philosophy in the schools. "At the beginning, I thought a lot of the work would be workshops for teachers," she says, "but teachers are totally overloaded. So it seemed better to bring people already trained in philosophy to visit in class once or twice a week."

For the past three years, that's what she and a handful of fellow philosophers--including UW doctoral student David Shapiro--have done. The results, Mohr-Lone says, have been gratifying. "Teachers who observe our sessions say that they've seen students quite differently watching them be engaged in these discussions," she says.

Mohr-Lone recalls one child who had shown little academic promise in class but became animated--and demonstrated exceptional analytical skills--during the weekly philosophy discussions. "It changed the way the teacher and other students viewed him," she says.

One reason young people find the dialogues compelling is that there are no set answers to the questions being examined. Mohr-Lone describes the resulting discussions as "an intellectual adventure." She explains, "Students are encouraged to ask and construct relevant questions, to develop their own views and articulate their reasons for them, and to listen to and learn from one another. To put together a good theory, you need reason but you also really need to use your imagination. That can be exciting for kids."

What do children ask? That depends on their age. At a very young age, says Mohr-Lone, students are most interested in metaphysical questions like what it is to be alive. Older elementary school students often focus on questions of ethics, such as what makes something fair. From middle school onward, students frequently are interested in the difference between knowledge and belief. Whatever their age, philosophical questions are relevant to students' daily lives. And that, says Mohr-Lone, is what many adults fail to realize.

"The challenge has been to demystify philosophy," she says. "Some people are intimidated by the idea of philosophy. That would be distressing to Socrates and Plato. Philosophy is not separate from the world; it is a way of being in the world, of seeing possibilities for inquiry in the simplest things."

Recognizing that many parents do not know how to engage in a philosophical discussion with their children, Mohr-Lone has added another dimension to her work: parent workshops. Being able to talk philosophically "creates a new dimension in your relationship with your children," says Mohr-Lone. "There's a place where you are equal inquirers. That can be really interesting and fun for parents."

In the parent workshop, the leader and parents read a story that is philosophically suggestive and start discussing it--modelling what parents can do with their own children. "The key," explains Mohr-Lone, "is to develop an ear for where a story or a question might lead to a philosophical discussion."

Although Mohr-Lone is pleased with the progress her organization has made in the past three years--with sessions at 15 Seattle-area schools and more than a dozen parent workshops--she's now ready to expand the program to reach even more children. "One of my goals is to get more people with a philosophy background trained for this, because there has been a strong response," says Mohr-Lone. Is she at all surprised by the positive reaction from schools? Not really. "When you love something the way I love philosophy," explains Mohr-Lone, "you can't imagine how anyone wouldn't think this is the most wonderful thing."

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[Autumn 1999 - Table of Contents]