Create Philosophers

As a double major with honours in English and Philosophy, I see a lot of value to creative thinking. More than simply higher level thinking, I am for thinking about thinking, for asking 'why', for challenging what you are told, for looking at the double meanings to simple sentences, for reading between the lines. I am all for creating mini philosophers.

This isn't as hard to do as you think; there are child-centred texts out there just for this kind of thing. In fact, the reason I'm blogging this right now is to promote one; The Little Prince. If you click that link, you'll be taken to a wiki page that shows some of the most memorable quotes from this text. If you click that link, you will quickly see that this picture-enhanced children's book is no regular children's book. Some of the lines in this text are comparable to the words of philosophers I studied in my undergrad. It is a brilliant book. It is beyond brilliant: it is inspiring, life-changing, philosopher-creating. No one can read this text and not be inspired to start writing their own aphorisms in response to what they are reading.

I truly recommend bringing this text into the classroom either for novel-studies (it comes in a short novel form) or classroom reading with reflections. The reflection part is the most important part but I ask you not to box off your student's reflections. Have them pick a line that stood out in the chapter you read (there will be plenty) and have them write anything in response to it; how it made them feel, whether they agree or disagree, why the character might have said it, etc. This text is in no way boxed, so I urge you not to box your students' thinking as they read it. Another bonus to this wonderful piece of work is that it is written in French so there are French editions that could be used in French immersion schools or read at the end of French classes.


I urge you to bring out the philosophers inside the hearts and souls of your students, because those little philosophers have the potential to completely blow your mind (as most philosophers of any age can do).