Teacher Muamer Masnopit proved that the method “Philosophy for Children – P4C” can be applied in all subjects, including mathematics. On April 1, 2022, at the Elementary School “Podlugovi” in the municipality of Ilijaš, students discussed the mathematical field: sharing through a literary text.
Students often wonder why schooling is important to me, will I ever need it? Therefore, it is crucial to bring mathematical concepts closer to children at an early age and make them interesting. Dry, ex cathedra lecture, demotivates students and leaves consequences such that students create aversion to a particular subject.
The stimulus for philosophical questioning about sharing was the story “Bears on a trip” which talks about (un) fair sharing of candy. Encouraged by the conflict situation in the story, the students formed a philosophical question: “Is friendship or candy more important?” They discussed the importance of friendship, how we share (toys, food, sweets) with friends, how friendship can break, emphasized are their own experiences, etc. While voting for the winning philosophical question, the students used candies that they distributed fairly at the end of the class.
