The annual contest is on to find Iowa’s most philosophical student. One of last year’s winners was a fifth-grader at Jordan Creek Elementary school in West Des Moines, Iowa. Teacher Lisa Clark says John Davis came to speak to schoolkids about his idea for a philosophy “slam.” Davis described it as an opportunity for kids to form their own ideas about a “big-picture question.”She says kids don’t shy away from pondering the big questions of life, like this year’s topic, war and peace. With so many big things happening in the world, like 9/11 which all the kids talked about, she says this is a great way to make the kids think. Clark says teachers don’t have to make philosophy a separate part of their teaching.It could be incorporated into social-studies or language-arts time easily, she says, and also art class, as some younger kids submit paintings or drawings of their ideas. One of Clark’s students, fifth-grade student Logan Baker, last year won an award in the annual kids’ philosophy slam, competing with kids from across the country and around the world. The question was “What is the Meaning of Life?” Logan wrote a series of letters, one at the time he was born, others as he imagined growing older till he was in his forties and a grandparent. To learn more, teachers, parents and kids can surf to http://www.philosophyslam.org/
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