Abstract

MIRAGLIA, Maria. Philosophy for children and territorial educational laboratories: a succesfull experimente. child.philo [online]. 2013, vol.9, n.18, pp.381-400. ISSN 1984-5987.  https://doi.org/110.12957/childphilo.2017.26709.

This article examines the need to orient education toward the development of complex thinking in urban areas where there is a considerable amount of social unrest. The school often fails to bridge the gap between educator/education and learner, and this happens in particular when it comes to 'disadvantaged' children. Philosophy for Children is a pedagogical method that can heal this divide through dialogic practice. The practice of philosophy represents a way to bridge the sense of fragmentation that the learner experiences in having to deal with a series of separately parceled knowledge units, because it facilitates cognitive access across their differences. The risk to the student in the traditional education, as Freire says, is that it undermines her ability to become aware of and to problematize her learning process. Building complex thinking opens the possibility of a broad, inclusive access to the real world, and increases the development of critical, creative and caring cognitive dimensions. P4C methodology should be widespread in as many school settings possible, but not only schools. The article continues with a brief description of some non-formal educational services offered to minors in situations of social disadvantage in Naples, focusing in particular on the Territorial Educational Laboratories. In one of these, L'Officina dei Sogni, an organization working in the territory of the 1st Municipality of the city, I conducted a P4C laboratory from October 2010 to June 2011 with children between 8 and 12 years old. I was motivated by the conviction that this educational methodology can improve cognitive skills in children and adolescents, and especially those who are living in socially problematic situations and who are experiencing difficulties at school and are at risk of social exclusion. The success of the laboratory has also had a positive effect on other daily Territorial Educational Laboratories' activities. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the use of this particular philosophical practice is not only possible but necessary in schools located in those urban areas in which there are pronounced social problems.

Keywords : Social disadvantage; Complex thinking; Philosophy for children.

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