" Touching The Texture Of Tiny Minds"

Here, children, is Plato. Plato was a Thinker. Plato often thought. He was a Good Man, children. He lived in Ancient Greece.

I heard some excellent news yesterday.
Very shortly, tiny children in Clackmannshire, Scotland, will have Philosophy lessons. They'll ponder on morals and ethics, society and religion.
In colourful classrooms, they'll sit in circles on rugs and they'll touch the texture of their own minds.
They'll learn things that will hold them in good stead for The Rest Of Their Lives .

TIME will be made for this. Time will be made for knowing The Tiniest Of Selves.
It should always have been so ( and it HAS been in many schools, be it "unofficially", through excellence of teaching and talking, relationships made) but now it will be allocated and accepted, valued and treasured. Philosophy will become part of the curriculum.

These tiny children will learn the beginnings of reason. They'll weigh up the words of other children. They'll tolerate differences, make distinctions between ideas.
They'll have time with their minds and that's magic!

EARLIER this week, walking into my kitchen, I discovered Radio 4 chatting re teaching Philosophy to children. I caught the programme only partially but at one point, someone described a little boy asking:" But IF I'm a sprout, WHO in the world would be ME?" ......

AND LATER I found a poem by Irish poet, Brendan Kennelly ( Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity College, Dublin for 30 years )
The poem, in a child's questioning voice, is called:"Poem from a three year old" and it's marvellous. Read it at: www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlepoet/poemld=204