How to do philosophy for children

Why this matters

A third grader can answer "Is it ever OK to break a promise?" with "never" and stop there. In a class circle, one or two children get to test their answer out loud while the rest wait, and a slow reader can lose the thread of a long story. The teacher has to wait for the next discussion to find out who still thinks a rule has no exceptions.

What philosophy for kids looks like

Philosophy for Children (P4C), pioneered by Matthew Lipman and Ann Margaret Sharp in the 1970s, explores big questions about fairness, friendship and courage, and "rather than supplying answers," it gives children space to "ask questions, give reasons, listen carefully, and build understanding collectively" (Prindle Institute). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes its classroom as a "community of inquiry," where students learn to support their ideas with good reasons and stay open to "the possibility that one should modify one's beliefs in light of new considerations" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

1. Ask one big question with no single right answer, such as "Is it ever OK to break a promise?"
2. Ask for a reason, then test it with a counterexample from the child's own life
3. Ask the child to fix the rule, then test the new one

In the Flint activity, each student types an answer to the promise question, and Sparky answers that student's own rule with a new story where the rule breaks. Sparky's replies play aloud, so a student who reads slowly still hears every story. A worksheet can't answer back with a counterexample.

Sparky gets Lily to turn "never" into a rule that holds up

Lily ends up with a rule that has an exception and a way to make it right. The question and the activity are the same for the whole class, and each counterexample comes from what each student types. Lily typed every message, and each of Sparky's replies played aloud as it arrived.

Sparky tests Lily's rule with a story from her own lifeSparky sends Lily back to her own wordsA better rule gets a harder question

L

Lily

Interest: Bedtime stories she promises her little brotherStarting point: Thinks a rule is either always or never true

Lily

hi im lily. no its never ok to break a promise. a promise is a promise. every night i promise my little brother i will read him a bedtime story and i always do it even when im tired

Sparky

What if one night you promised to read him a story, but then you got really sick and could barely talk? Should you still keep that promise?

Lily

hmm. if im sick i cant read so that dosent count. thats not really breaking it. so its still never ok to break a promise

Sparky

So you are saying being sick makes it different somehow. Can you turn that into a rule? Like, "You should always keep a promise UNLESS..."

Lily

ok. you should always keep a promise unless you cant do it. like if your sick

Sparky

Here is one more test. You could still read to your brother, but your friend really needed you. Does "can't" cover that one?

Lily

thats hard. i could read to him but my friend is sad. i think i would talk to my friend first. so then i broke it even tho i could do it. so my rule dosent work. maybe you should keep a promise unless something more importent happens

Sparky

Ooh, "more important," that is a big upgrade to your rule! But who gets to decide what counts as more important: you, or the person you made the promise to?

Lily

both i think? i could ask my brother if i can read to him tomorow instead. new rule: you should keep a promise unless something more importent happens, and then you tell the person and fix it later

Went from 'never' to a rule with an exception, then added telling the person

Lily is an example student, and Sparky's replies are shortened. Two counterexamples that Lily's "unless you cant do it" rule already covered are left out.

What Flint did for Lily

• Sparky read the sad friend story aloud, the counterexample Lily later said changed her mind the most.
• When Lily said being sick "dosent count," Sparky asked her to turn her own words into an "unless" rule instead of writing the rule for her.
• When Lily's rule became "unless something more important happens," Sparky asked who gets to decide what is more important.

A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.

The activity page shows who still says "never"

While the class works, Needs attention shows the teacher which student is stuck and on which message. After three or more students submit, activity analytics lists what the class reasoned well about, where students went wrong, and a follow-up for the next class discussion.

Set up the activity for free

Open the promise activity in Flint's public library, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and assign it to a class. In the activity's Language settings, Sparky's communication is set to Writing and speaking (with autoplay), so every reply plays aloud as it arrives, and Students' communication is Writing only, so students type. To let students answer out loud, change Students' communication to Writing or speaking (help article). Speaking rate slows Sparky's voice down to 0.5x for younger readers.

For more ethics activities, see Flint for ethics.