I'm making an essay to send to various top players in my city in a plea to why philosophy should be included in the curriculum in primary schools (USA) in hopes that they'll listen, can anyone please read this and tell me what they think?
To the benefit of everyone,
As children, we were all once philosophers, looking towards the sky and asking Mom or Dad, “Why is the sky blue?” These questions eventually evolved into deeper thoughts, questions on the meaning of life and what our purpose is in it. Education fostered these thoughts only for so long before it became a game of who could outperform whom in what skill. With lives as short as ours, many contemplate on the best ways to achieve happiness in the shortest amount of time possible; without guidance, this method of living can be poisonous, although this seems to be the route many choose to take in this world full of temptation. Without critical thought, we are no better than a lab rat chasing cheese through a maze, rushing to reach the end in excitement, only to realize at the end that having what you desire does not compare to the feeling of the hope of having that thing.
English, math, science, history---everyone who goes to school in Springfield will learn these fundamentals, but why are they so greatly emphasized? Schools dedicate large portions of the day to these subjects, every one of them useful in their own right, but do they teach someone how to live? Philosophy, in its essence, is the mother of all of these subjects; the search for the absolute truth is what comes out of philosophy. The truth past trivial input and output questions. The search for truth of life and how one should conduct oneself. Philosophy is a subject that values the truth above all else; adding it to the curriculum and making it a subject of high importance will be an invaluable addition to students’ lives and help them navigate the perils of life with intuition.
Some would argue that this is not the school system's purpose and that such things must be taught at home or through life experience alone; therefore, adding philosophy to the general curriculum would make things problematic. For thousands of years, religion has been the basis for morality for almost all humans. As the years pass, it is being rejected more and more. This leaves many without a moral foundation. Massachusetts, as the most irreligious state in the USA, is by no means equipping the population to cope with life’s troubles in the same way religion might. Contemporary religions have been built upon for years on end, by hundreds if not thousands of humans with varying experiences. The religions were all constructed with a common purpose: to show a person how to live correctly, similar to philosophy. The difference is that philosophy requires no leap of faith; all objective philosophy is something that can be taught at no harm to the personal beliefs of a student, giving them everything to gain and nothing to lose. If a student is taught to critically think on the bigger questions of life, then they can achieve the highest possible good for themselves and the world around them.
All children are in essence blank slates and the future of our nation. Why is it that in our education system we place such a high value on skills with relatively little importance to how a person will live his or her life? Opening students' eyes to the ideas of philosophers which came from extremely diverse backgrounds and upbringings will increase their field of knowledge and outlook on the world; if ideas like open mindedness and critical thinking are stressed in schools the probability for better equality of opportunity, one of the pillars of American society, would likely be far higher than traditional education alone . It is in the developmental stage where careful planning and honing of the mind has created the greatest of society; everyone deserves that chance, not only for themselves, but for everyone else too.
Knowledge is not a competition; it is a tool for fulfillment.
Submitted August 23, 2021 at 03:17PM by SuleekXO https://ift.tt/388UB3i
