Amy Leask’s passion for giving children a way to think philosophically has led her to write books and apps called “Kids Think About It,” “Tinker Thinkers” and “According to Phil.” She’s a self-identified everyday-philosopher and taught philosophy and humanities for 10 years in Canadian colleges before starting a curriculum design company with her husband.
Philoso-Me: In your experience, what’s the significance of teaching kids philosophy?
Leask: Speaking as a professor, someone who taught post secondary school, I saw that there were students who had taken philosophy before and the reason they were taking it at a secondary level was because they loved it the first time. They would tell me that this was the first course they’ve taken where they could argue with teachers and it wasn’t just learning by rote.
How did Kids Think About It and Tinker Thinkers come about?
Well we’ve done philosophy books and robot books for kids; things we wanted to own and develop for ourselves. The manuscripts for the original philosophy books came about years ago when I was teaching. My husband and I were both teaching teaching older students and realized you shouldn’t have to be 18 to learn about philosophy.
When did you decide you wanted to create books and technology to teach kids about philosophy?
I was teaching humanities and philosophy at Humber and Sheridan, right in the thick of it.
What kind of feedback have you received from readers/users of your Tinker Thinkers and Kids Think About It books/apps?
It’s been really interesting the kind of feedback we get! We do major book fairs and events. During the years, now that they’ve been out for a while, we have people come back to the same events to tell us that they loved it. It’s more parents than teachers who get them for their
kids so they can get to know about [philosophy for children]. And we’re not just introducing them to stuff we’ve produced, but the whole idea of philosophy for kids.
Some of these parents raise their eyebrows and say, “Can you really do that?” We explain to them that you really can. Our robot book, According to Phil, even got onto the recommended list for the National Science Teachers Association. We hear of school teachers across the world who have said they’ve been using it in their classrooms. Right now it’s only in English but we hope to translate to other languages sometime.
How about education? What can you say about the curriculum specifically in Canada and how philosophy is taught there taught pre-collegiately?
It’s different for every province, but there’s a lot more of it in Quebec. They started implementing that in the 90s and they do it with more with younger kids. In Ontario it’s available to high school students in 11th and 12th grade. Those are the official courses. But younger than that, we’re still pushing for more philosophy in schools.
How has it made an impact? is it too soon to see?
It is too soon, especially with smaller kids. It’s done in bits and bites but I know that the two high school philosophy courses are products of the new curriculum implemented in 2000. There may be data for those classes.
Where do you think the movement is headed?
It’ll take a while to get anything formal put into the system – that’s the way the ministry of education works. What I’ve gotten from conferences is that there is interest, there’s just finding a way to fit it into regular curriculum that’s tough. For younger kids, I think it’s going to be cross-curricular. I can see it being used for character education, anti-bullying and diversity initiatives. It isn’t that we’re going to teach philosophy, but we can work it into the curriculum. If you’re doing gym class, there are a few philosophical activities you can work it into your classroom.
The idea is hands on real world experience. That’s the key to getting parents to understand it. You can have amazing educational products but parents have to encourage. Parents have a lot of power on school boards and at home and part of the P4C movement has to be empowering parents. It has to be something parents are taking home with them. If it’s something they can tackle, the general perception isn’t that philosophy is something white guys in togas do, but that it’s an empowering tool for parents.
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