Peter Worley makes the case for philosophy teaching in all Primary Schools

I have been working in primary schools in south-east London for the past five years and have developed my own programme and schemes of work at the Philosophy Shop. I am committed to introducing the topic of philosophy to young children as something recognisable to an academic philosopher. I aim not only to provide children with a platform for thinking, expressing and sharing their ideas, but also to engage them with the main topics of philosophy. And most importantly to get them philosophising.

I have also been working very closely with classroom teachers to develop my schemes of work so that they work in combination with the national curriculum. I have found that a philosophy session is an excellent way to consolidate, assess and supplement aspects of the national curriculum so that the sessions become an essential part of the school week rather than an add-on to the school day. I would argue that all schools should have at least one resident philosopher to be able to do this kind of work, reconnecting the word philosophy with its etymology love of wisdom (or learning), and putting philosophy back in to the beginnings of learning from whence it came.

There are many initiatives in learning but few have the structure, discipline and scope of philosophy. It has methods and standards of evaluation that even these own methods and standards are open to — what Gerd Achenbach called the 'method beyond method'. It gives structure to good thinking not just an opportunity to think and in the changing world in to which we are moving these transferable skills are surely among the most necessary skills available to us.

In my experience, philosophy has also been very successful in, not only stretching gifted and talented pupils, but also in identifying them. We have found that many very bright children seem to slip through the usual system of the three Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic) but have been identified in the philosophy sessions because of their good reasoning skills, profound insights and powers of verbal expression. We have also discovered that children with behavioural difficulties have responded well to the philosophy sessions, as philosophy can provide them a constructive platform for their contrary thinking.

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