Wisdom for all children?

An appeal for education that nurtures wisdom – at least for gifted students - comes from a surprising source – Charles Murray in the Wall Street Journal.

He says; The encouragement of wisdom requires a special kind of education. It requires first of all recognition of one’s own intellectual limits and fallibilities–in a word, humility. This is perhaps the most conspicuously missing part of today’s education of the gifted. Many high-IQ students, especially those who avoid serious science and math, go from kindergarten through an advanced degree without ever having a teacher who is dissatisfied with their best work and without ever taking a course that forces them to say to themselves, “I can’t do this.” Humility requires that the gifted learn what it feels like to hit an intellectual wall, just as all of their less talented peers do, and that can come only from a curriculum and pedagogy designed especially for them. That level of demand cannot fairly be imposed on a classroom that includes children who do not have the ability to respond. The gifted need to have some classes with each other not to be coddled, but because that is the only setting in which their feet can be held to the fire.

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But are only the academically gifted capable of wisdom? Is intellectual ‘walling’ the same as humiliation - and is this a good way to cultivate wisdom? My experience is that classes and most individual children possess wisdom. The first step in its cultivation is stopping the system causing the wisdom to atrophy.

Of course using the SunWALK model, including PFC (Prof Matthew Lipman’s Philosophy for Children Programme), the cultivation of wisdom is built in for all students from Year 1 onwards!

The full Murray article can be read in full at HERE. Thanks to Gordon Kerr for  pointing out this article.

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All postings to this site relate to the central SunWALKmodel in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE