The idea of doing philosophy with children did not appear out of the blue. It would be hard to imagine the program of philosophy for children, as it was developed by Matthew Lipman, without the ideas taken from John Dewey. One of these ideas is the teaching of thinking skills, and this presentation is devoted to it. Dewey showed that what school can and must do for students is to develop their ability to think. This issue is taken up by Lipman in philosophy for children, developing a thinking skills program that should help children think both more logically and more meaningfully.
