School of Thought

Why we should be teaching our children to think, or rather how to think.

 

After reading this great BBC article by Hugh Schofield about his daughter’s impending philosophy exam (She’s doing her baccalaureate in Paris), it inspired me to wave the flag a little bit.

I think the French have got it spot on. Much value is placed on educating a mind that can reason and develope a set of values, to question what they see around them. Philosophy is seen as a very practical and useful tool. Je pense donc je suis.

 These days children are connecting with the world at a very early age. They are asked to make  important choices, both in their social environment and in their education. They have so much pressure to find out where they stand and how they feel about a forbidding and chaotic world. The ubiquitous nature of social networking means children are exposed to more of the human condition than ever before, and at an earlier age. Is this such a bad thing? Not if they are given the tools with which to handle these situations. One thing understanding philosophy can do is help to develop a kind of system to live by, or at least a personal set of values that we can arm ourselves with when faced with life’s problems.

Sometimes I think we are a little too afraid to discuss the really big questions with a child. Why are we here? What is evil? Why is love so important? Does humanity need a society? Is truth more important than feelings?

Perhaps it is because we fear they are not yet ready to deal with these enormous themes. Or is it because we don’t actually know the answers ourselves? Or more pertinently, never even bothered to mull them over? So many of us (including myself although I'm trying to change this) breeze through life with out bothering to think about the really big questions. I think to some extent its human nature.

Trying to answer an abstract question can scare people because there isn't one answer. This is unacceptable to most people’s minds as it doesn’t provide us with comfort or a secure footing in the order of things (Enter Religion, stage right). But why not? If through their education, children arrive at University age with a sound understanding of what it means to reason, to balance a thought and see both sides of a moral argument, even just to have developed an opinion about something, are they not better equipped to make the right decisions for themselves?

Big decisions are all relative. What seems like a life-changer to a child may not seem much to an adult, so it might happen that a parent could miss a serious problem in a teenager’s life (especially as most teenagers are about as communicative as Stonehenge). Wouldn’t it be great if a philosophy class could help to provide a moral solution to that dilemma? Of course its naïve to think that all your childhood problems can be solved by dipping into a bit of Sartre but it might help to know that there is a way of thinking that can put things into perspective. And I think perspective is everything.  As Marcus Aurelius says, "Everything we see is a perspective, not a truth"

By exposing students to several different schools of thought, it may just be that, even if one doesn't entirely work for all situations, its possible to dip in and out of several different theories and find a bespoke system of values that suits that individual. That's what I think is the best way to treat philosophy. I take great comfort from the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius for example, but I don't delve to deeply into one mantra. One can get too bogged down into one philosopher's idioms (especially if that philosopher is Nietzsche!). If a child can be introduced to several ways of looking at the world and the moral questions it raises he/she can find the one that works best for them.

So, why not introduce compulsory philosophy lessons into the British curriculum? I'm sure there are those out there who would question its need, and God-fearing folk who would feel threatened by the idea that one can develop a moral code without the need for religion. I suppose we have never been as introspective a nation as France, but, well, perhaps that needs to change? An emphasis on celebrity and quick fix solutions is in danger of turning our youth into myopic Zombies fed on popular culture that never stops to ask why? but when? The trick is to make philosophy relevant and usable, not a dry and dusty lesson about History's greatest thinkers.

To quote Marcus Aurelius again ( I really do like him)

"The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts: therefore guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature"