What is Philosophy for Children?

Where it came from

P4C was developed by the philosopher Matthew Lipman. He founded the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State University in 1974, with Ann Margaret Sharp. His idea was that children can do real philosophical thinking, so long as you give them something worth thinking about and a good way to do it together.

What it looks like in a classroom

A session usually starts with a stimulus, often a story or a picture, that opens a real question. The class turns it into questions of their own, picks one, and follows it together. The teacher guides the discussion instead of handing over answers. That shared discussion is the community of inquiry. Along the way children learn to build on each other's ideas, to disagree without falling out, and to change their minds when someone makes a better point.

Where it sits in Australia

In Australia, philosophy in schools has its own bodies: the Federation of Asia-Pacific Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA) nationally, and the Victorian Association for Philosophy in Schools (VAPS) in Victoria. It also fits the curriculum teachers already work with. In the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0, Ethical Capability is one of four core capabilities, with its own content and achievement standards. Its strands cover ethical concepts and perspectives, and how to make and act on decisions. The same reasoning turns up nationally, in the Australian Curriculum's Ethical Understanding and Critical and Creative Thinking capabilities.

An honest word on the evidence

Philosophy with children has a long history in classrooms. The research is worth being straight about. An earlier UK trial reported gains in reading and maths, but a larger follow-up trial found no extra progress in either. So the case for it is the chance to practise asking good questions and listening to other people, not a promise of better marks. We make no claim that philosophical discussion, or our stories, improve any measured result.

How Stoic Sprout fits

Stoic Sprout isn't P4C itself. The teaching is in how you run the discussion. What Stoic Sprout gives you is the stimulus: short, calm stories adapted from real philosophers (Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Cicero), each ending on a question a class can take up. Was that fair? What was in his control? What would you have done? It makes a good springboard for the kind of discussion P4C is built around. And since it's made for children, the app carries no ads, no third-party analytics, and no student sign-ins.

Mark Fitzgerald · Founder of Stoic Sprout

Mark made Stoic Sprout as a dad in Melbourne, for his own young children, with calm stories drawn from the real Stoic philosophers. More about Mark →