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Matthews
Facilitates Growth of Philosophy Education in Europe
Philosophy professor Gareth Matthews is helping to teach people to think - before they get to a university. Matthews has been advising education officials in two German states on the development of a philosophy curriculum and training Dutch teachers in doing philosophy with elementary school children. Matthews conducted workshops March 15 for teachers at a conference on elementary school philosophy in Utrecht, the Netherlands, that attracted 130 participants, and was interviewed for Dutch television in nearby Hilversum for a program about philosophy for children. Two of Matthews' books have been translated into Dutch by educator Berrie Heesen. On March 17, he traveled to Dusseldorf in North-Rhine Westphalia, a state of 18 million people, to run a one-day workshop for approximately 60 high school educators on teaching philosophy to high school students, a program that is getting underway statewide. "They call it practical philosophy," he said. "It is meant to be real philosophy and to be in all the secondary schools in that state, and that will be a major undertaking. They have a core group trying things out." Matthews did a series of teaching demonstrations, suggesting different approaches to philosophical materials. "What I did was have four sessions," he said. "They can do a story from Plato (or) a passage from an early dialogue (of Plato's). They can make up a story, based on a passage, or do an analysis of a dialogue. "These are students near graduation who are getting what is called an Abitur, which is the equivalent of early college here. They can be pretty sophisticated. There is no reason they can't do an analysis of a full dialogue." After the demonstrations Matthews and the teachers discussed what had happened. "Doing philosophy in public schools is increasing worldwide," Matthews said. "September a year ago I was in Hamburg. There they have philosophy in the first grade. The odd thing about the constitution of the Federal Republic (of Germany) is that schools are mandated by the constitution to offer religious education and to offer an alternative. What they have done with the alternative (in the past) is to discuss social issues, but now there is a serious effort to train teachers to do real philosophy. "The exciting thing is the ramifications are so huge. Education is decentralized from the federal government, but within a state things are highly organized. That will be a major development in Germany when a state as big as that is doing philosophy. "The most dramatic case is the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ... that is a very sparsely populated state and very poor - one of the so-called new federal states," Matthews said. About four years ago, Matthews did a conference for some of the elementary teachers, whom he described as "shaking in their boots" about doing philosophy. Trainers came from Hamburg to participate. "They have produced a book of group curriculum materials partly from my writing," he said. A woman who had read Matthews' books had gotten the agreement of both parties of the state's coalition government to include philosophy in the elementary school curriculum. Because of decades of Nazism and East German communism, "these people have never learned how to think," she told him. "They really ought to be introduced to vigorous thinking skills." Matthews credits Matthew Lipman, director of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children at Montclair State University in New Jersey for driving the philosophy for children movement. "My influence is much more accidental and extracurricular for me," he said. Matthews has written three books on philosophy and children, including "Dialogues with Children" and "Philosophy of Childhood," all published by Harvard University Press. His first book on the subject, "Philosophy and the Young Child," is available in eight languages. |
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