The Importance of Philosophy

Today's post I am going to talk about a very important topic for me: philosophy and its importance in school education.

To begin, and as I already mentioned in the previous post, I am a philosophy teacher and since I was studying at the university, the rumor that philosophy would be eliminated from the compulsory subjects of secondary education, it was a ghost that haunted our steps. But that was not the worst, the worst was the certainty with which someones stated that philosophy was not necessary, because they was, and are, very wrong.

The type of society and the educational system in which our country is immersed (hopefully not for much longer), has implanted the erroneous idea that philosophy and the body of knowledge that don´t provide material and immediate benefit, don´t they have no value. For this reason, subjects that are thought to have greater practical utility, such as mathematics and science, are usually favored.

But the error is immense, since philosophy, in addition to contributing to the development of critical and moral thinking -central aspects for the integral development of a human being-, can also represent an aid to better performance in those aforementioned subjects. Numerous studies by Project Zero researchers at Harvard University have confirmed the value of teaching philosophy in the classroom. Its different educational programs and tools focused on this subject have been shown to improve not only critical thinking, but also its performance in other subjects, such as language and mathematics.

From this point of view, philosophy should not only never be eliminated from secondary education, but should even be taught in basic education. The practice of philosophy with children generates growth in various aspects of development personal. The cognitive, moral, and sense-seeking attitude of the reality. In various countries it is found that philosophy in basic education develops students' cognitive abilities and generates better results in their learning.

As is evident, philosophy is a central area of ​​knowledge for the integral development of people. Philosophy represents the tool that makes us develop our critical thinking, that drives us to be curious and to question things.

Philosophy is not unnecessary, it is fundamental, and those who struggle to eliminate it know this very well. They don´t despise it, they fear it, because they want submissive citizens, who don´t criticize and don´t question anything; and philosophy is the one who can break that herd mentality, open our minds, implant the questions, seek the answers and raise revolutions, of be necessary.