Bringing P4C Into the Undergraduate Classroom

achieved according to the group’s own standards. Finally, the community is engaged collaboratively in inquiry. This is where the philosophical component of our work is perhaps most recognizable. Above and beyond the “facts” of a particular topic (and, in the case of a college course, the assigned reading materials), members of the community develop the skills necessary to take inquiry to a deeper and more intellectually rigorous level. As the community strengthens, there is an expectation that reasons will be given to support views, that evidence will be sought in support of claims, that recognition of ambiguity and the consequent clarification of meaning is necessary, that assumptions and implications will be pursued, and that counter-examples will be envisioned to test the truth of the claims being made. The exercise of these thinking tools, coupled with a responsibility for one’s own thinking and participation in the inquiry, transforms students—too many of whom have internalized the role of passive listener—into active co-inquirers, reflective thinkers, and lifetime learners. Prior to my teaching on the UH Manoa campus, I worked as a teaching assistant in the Philosophy in the Schools Project for two and one half years. During that time, I engaged in philosophical dialogues on a weekly basis with over twenty classes in Hawai’i’s public schools ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. While the formation of an intellectually safe place and the practice of higher-order thinking skills are of first importance in preparing for philosophical inquiry, “doing” philosophy with children advances far beyond these initial requirements. Although these young students do not engage directly with traditional philosophical theories, their chosen topics and the depth of their insights are far-reaching and rich. It is not uncommon, within the course of the year, for the students to inquire into the nature of reality, space, and time, the existence of God and the role of religion, the definition of hapEverything I know about teaching I learned from P4C.