Why We Should Teach our Kids Philosophy

Philosophy is important for parents to teach their children because it enhances their critical thinking skills and also helps them become deep thinkers. Some of the greatest men and women have been great philosophers and have made a huge difference in the world we live in. Many inventors and scientists, writers, artists, world leaders, and saints have left behind a legacy of important philosophical quotes to help future generations encourage their confidence by listening to many of these quotes. Everyone is unique and each person has a special person they look up to in life that was a famous philosopher though many centuries. Deep thinking is important because this is what enhances children’s imaginations. Albert Einstein was considered learning disabled, yet he discovered the theory of relativity by using his imagination. He was also one of the greatest scientists and philosophers from the 20th century. Einstein also recognized that technology was going to change as fast as the speed of light as time went on and one of his greatest quotes was about his fear and theory of rapid changing growth and technology.

For many years children learned about basic subjects like math, science, English composition and grammar. Included were philosophy and theology and this created some of the most famous thinkers in the world when technology was very limited. The world has discovered that there is a crisis going on in today’s world called the lack of creativity. Theology and philosophy are not offered as much in academics as they used to be. Budgets have been cut drastically and many teachers have to buy their own supplies for their classes. Parents are paying fees for their kids to attend public school plus buying them supplies so schools have limited themselves back to the basics.  

Philosophy is important.

Because it was considered a higher learning class and taught students how to see many sides of a problem and also taught them how to master complex situations. Students who studied philosophy learn more creativity as they reach adulthood and can easily solve the many problems that come in the workplace, their personal lives and in the real world. Learning philosophy teaches kids how to use their deep thinking skills, and how to understand and tear apart factual arguments from arguments that have no validity. They also learn better communication skills in life.

Look at the new kids out in the workplace and do they know how to solve their problems effectively? Are they good at communicating? Do you see them as hard workers, efficient and on time and able to arrive at solutions for difficult problems? Many employers are complaining that the kids today don’t want to work for their paycheck and worse yet, these employers are having problems with people staying at their jobs.

Since the late 1990s, the kids that high school and college are kicking out are entering the workplace. The rest of the kids that were born at the end of the 20th century are now working in regular jobs and getting ready to graduate from high school. These kids have done quite a bit of standardized tests. These students aren’t learning how to think for themselves, they are being taught what to think about and not how to think and derive their own conclusions. When technology started to take off in the late ’70s and early ’80s, researchers found that the current education system had many weaknesses that were significant. This is what started causing problems with the performance of students in the United States compared to the rest of the world. The world started rapidly changing and the students were fighting a losing battle in the US. They were not succeeding in class and graduation was down in high school.

During the ’80s a movement started that made the education system accountable for these kids failing. This is when school administrators, teachers, and congressman started to look for a solution to improve the performance of the students in the schools in the US. The focus was on math and science and this started new standards for education and the “No Child Left Behind Act” (NCLB). This hasn’t worked out as well as school districts thought and there are still problems with our education system. So what is the solution?

Centuries ago, science that was born by the then geniuses of the world that were also creative in philosophy. Students that studied philosophy in a world with limited technology, started them looking for answers and the meaning of the universe. This is what needs to change is students should learn the basics of philosophy at a very young age. They should understand what arguments are in general, gain knowledge, learn more about the universe, reasoning, logic, political philosophy, different world government strategies, democracy, socialism, etc. Students also need to learn more about ethnicities and culture, history and the events that occurred and subject vs object.

If students start learning these things at a younger age and build on them they will have the foundation they need to learn how to think and not what to think. Kids are not robots, technology is moving fast but children are still human and need to think for themselves so this is what went wrong when schools started doing too much testing and not enough teaching.

Parents should look at books and read them first to see if they feel these books are written to teach their children about the concepts of philosophy, like being fair, the truth, being honest and building ethics. This is how you start your kids off at an early age because these concepts are simple. After you read to them or they have read these books to you, ask them the questions and see if they discover a philosophical event in the book you both read together.

This really is easier than it sounds when the subject of philosophy first comes up. Parents probably are wondering what went wrong with the school systems from when they were younger. Grandparents are lost as well but if parents teach their children the basics of being truthful, showing respect, having a set of ethics, gaining knowledge and learning how to be fair, this really isn’t hard at all. The next generation might just put the US back on track.