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Funding model: "all or nothing". To receive funds this project has to reach at least 100% of it's goal before 18.08.2018.

A handbook for facilitating philosophy with children

Publishing

Fundacja Academicon Lublin, Polska Funding model: "all or nothing"

About this project

With your help, we would like to publish a book titled Philosophise with children. A guide to conducting philosophical inquiries with children and young people.

Philosophy with children is a springboard of their development. Children are curious about the world, they ask a lot of questions. If this potential can be used, the child's mind will develop broader, resulting in better results in all areas of school education.

A guide to conducting philosophical inquiries with children and youth is a book for teachers, educators, culture animators, workshop leaders for creative thinking, as well as for parents interested in the emotional and intellectual development of their children.

The book is a simple and practical introduction to the unusual world of philosophizing with the youngest, step by step shows how to teach children the ability to be logical, independent and critical (in word: honest) thinking, finding creative solutions, the ability to argue for their own reasons, building correct statements and culture discussion.

The author uses the tools for philosophizing with children, including games, games, simulations, scripts. The reader will find a rich selection of them and recommendations for further development.

It will be richly illustrated (we anticipate over 20 unique illustrations depicting individual sections of the book).

The method of teaching philosophy described by the author is based on philosophical inquiries with children (called Philosophy for Children - P4C). P4C, created in the 1960s by Prof. Matthew Lipman, refers to the Socratic tradition of extracting wisdom through philosophical dialogue. Lipman was looking for a discipline that would intellectually develop children on many levels and his choice fell on philosophy. It equips children with the ability to think logically and critically, find creative solutions, teach independence and reliability in thinking and discussion culture. At the same time, it opens up new ideas and teaches tolerance and respect for other views. Since that time, many schools and styles of conducting philosophizing classes with children around the world have been developed and the author draws from different styles and his own experience.

We want to see a professional and practical tool to conduct philosophical inquiries with children in Poland. We want this book to reach didactic facilities, school libraries, the Teachers' Training Centres, the pedagogical faculties as well as individual teachers and people who conduct philosophical inquiries with children in cultural centres, youth clubs and community centres on their own. We also want to it to be found in the parents’ library.

The idea to write a book was created during our cooperation with the author, Łukasz Krzywon in the "Philosophical Education" section. Łukasz, as an editor and teacher with passion, has a lot of knowledge, and above all, experience, which he gained during renowned European courses and by conducting his own philosophical classes. Working with our Foundation, Łukasz wanted to share his knowledge with Polish educators.

The book received a positive and substantive review of the authority in the field of teaching children of philosophy using the P4C method, prof. dr hab. Aldona Pobojewska, president of the Philosophy Education Association "Phronesis".

Here is what the author himself says in the introduction about the purpose of publishing this book:

When I was looking for materials in Polish, it became clear to me that a publication promoting tools for conducting classes with children would be useful on the Polish market. In my research, I met with hard-to-find translations of the pioneers of this field, some fairly good but short studies on the topic, as well as a few academic dissertations, perhaps less readable for the uninitiated in the issues of metaphilosophy. The purpose of this publication was to write an accessible and practical guide to conduct classes with children and teenagers. The book does not exhaust the topic, but it should be a sufficient starter package so that after reading it one should be able to facilitate a philosophical inquiry with a group of children and develop further. I hope that it will meet your expectations.

We plan to publish the book in December 2018, but most of the prizes will go to the donors at the turn of September and October.

As the Academicon Foundation, we work to promote the philosophy, including philosophical education from an early age. We are aware of the many publications being already published in English and we want valuable and practical materials to facilitate philosophical inquiries with to be widely available in Polish as well.

Publishing a book is a costly undertaking, especially in such a niche area, and as a foundation we do not have the means to do it. That is why we are asking for the support of our project.

Costs breakdown

The budget for the project is 25,000 Polish Zlotys (ca €6000)

These funds will be allocated to:

• royalties,

• publishing review,

• drafting and proofreading of the text of the book,

• graphic design of the book (cover, title pages, book mockup),

• composition and breaking,

• making illustrations,

• book printing,

• book promotion,

• operating costs of the PolakPotrafi portal,

• awards for donors.

In the case of a surplus of 20%, we will record an online course on philosophical inquiry. If we receive a surplus of 50%, we will send the copies of the book for selected schools and libraries in Poland free of charge.

Please, help us implement our project. In gratitude for yours generosity and faith in the sense of our undertaking, we have prepared prizes for you:

Our Foundation Academicon works for education, in particular for children and youth. We are convinced that an important element of it, is the philosophical education, which develops the ability to think logically, creatively solve problems and the ability to dialogue with other people - so important in a civil society.

Our previous initiatives include:

• „Filozofuj!” Magazine, published for 3 years - illustrated popular science magazine, published both in paper and online version. This last version is available for free after about a month from the publication of the paper version. We want access to reliable philosophical knowledge to be easy.

• The portal is related to the magazine filozofuj.eu, on which we publish journalistic articles and news about philosophy.

• We organize Clubs „Philosophy!” in many cities in Poland, taking place outside the academic walls in cafes, bookstores, libraries and other cultural centres. We invite the authorities in the field of philosophy to the discussion and put them at the disposal of the gathered audience.

• We have been organizing Summer Schools for Philosophy for 3 years! - a combination of relaxation in the mountains with popular philosophy classes, discussions on the road and around the films shown. Classes in the School are run by outstanding academic specialists.

Our efforts have been appreciated - we have become finalists of the 2016 Science Promoter contest, organized by the Science in Poland service of the Polish Press Agency in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the "Team" category.