Teaching Children Philosophy - The Prindle Institute for Ethics

Interested in teaching philosophy and ethics to elementary school children? We’ve got over 250 discussion guides designed to help you introduce philosophy and ethics using popular children’s picture books. Each discussion guide will introduce educators to the key philosophical or ethical issues in the picture book. The guides also provide questions to help initiate a philosophical discussion with young children.

Have you ever thought of using children’s literature to teach philosophy to elementary school children? It may surprise you to know that children’s books often raise deep philosophical issues and that children love to think about them. Each of our book modules has all of the materials that you need to lead philosophy discussions with your students. We’ve chosen a set of books that we think are remarkable for their philosophical content, and we have assembled questions to use to initiate a philosophical discussion.

Today on her podcast Fuse 8 n’ Kate, Betsy Bird talked about Papa Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle and she mentioned and read an extract from The Prindle Institute for Ethics. Of course, I was SO curious. This is a brilliant resource and well worth taking some time for a deep dive. Take a look at their resources and questions for Papa Please Get the Moon for Me. 

Browsing The Prindle Institute so many of my favourite titles jumped out at me (pop these into my search bar) such as The Important Book; The Name Jar; The Quiltmakers Gift; Those Shoes; Sam and the Firefly; Corduroy; Waiting (Henkes); Extra Yarn; Elmer; If you give a Mouse a Cookie; Emanuel's dream; and Leonardo the Terrible Monster. I did spy (on a quick viewing) one Australian title - The Very Best of Friends by Margaret Wild illustrated by Julie Vivas (hint you cannot search by illustrator).

This could be a fantastic resource to share with your staff - perhaps give them a picture book from your collection and print out the page of ideas and questions. Some of our schools here in NSW each Ethics - I guess they have fairly structured and set lesson formats but if you have a chance to share this resource I imagine it would help the volunteer teachers deliver such rich lessons enhanced with beautiful picture books. 

Here is a screen shot of some titles from their site:

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Grades 1 and 2; Art or Beauty

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Grade Pre K; Life and Death