RAZVOJ I ULOGA FILOZOFIJE SA DECOM U SRBIJI
THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY WITH CHILDREN IN SERBIA

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this research paper is the development and role of Philosophy for Children, starting with its onset at the end of 1960s and the beginning of 1970s in America, then, concerning its reception in the philosophical circles of SFRY, and finally, its introduction to the educational system of the Republic of Serbia as an elective course named Philosophy with Children. The first part of the work is a review of Matthew Lipman’s philosophical and pedagogical project “Philosophy for Children”, Lipman thought that philosophical education is needed and also possible from the early age of child development. In the middle part of the work, I analyze the texts on the topic of Philosophy for Children, which had been published in our journals only fifteen years after Lipman’s beginnings, and I treat them as a part of a wider context of the debate about methods of philosophy teaching and philosophy as a school subject. In the last part of the work, I talk about the elective course Philosophy with Children, which was introduced in September 2022 to elementary education for the first time. The thesis of this work is that the introduction of Philosophy for Children in Serbia is a generally positive step, but the way in which the course is currently executed makes it a product of rough calculation with required workload for teachers. Therefore, at the cost of those who are the most apt and educated for executing and realizing the course - philosophy teachers, which means at the cost of children too.

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