Delving Ever Deeper: Gifted Students and Philosophy

Abstract

This paper is a reflection on practice, specifically, the practice of introducing philosophy into the middle school grades at one of the United States’ most highly acclaimed public schools for the intellectually gifted, located in a large and highly diverse city on the East Coast. While the paper describes some salient features of the school and its philosophy program, it moves beyond mere description to ask what philosophy has to offer gifted students, and how the experience at this particular school and others like it, might have been, and might yet be, improved. One issue not taken up in the paper, other than descriptively, is the familiar conundrum of how — or even whether — giftedness is to be characterized in ways that sit comfortably with legitimate concerns about the nature of intelligence, the socio-political dimensions of culture and diversity, and the demands of equity and fairness which any democratic society worthy of the name must address. For what it's worth, I do not believe that there is any such thing as a “gifted program”, that is, a subject, or curriculum which belongs exclusively to gifted students, however they are to be identified. On the other hand, I am fearful for the future of a society which does not recognize and celebrate excellence of all kinds, and excellence in thinking, specifically. Gifted students may not deserve more attention than students generally; but they don't deserve less either.The school in question is typical in offering a broad assortment of subjects and programs which must compete for space in a crowded curriculum. In this context, the process of introducing one more subject has not been easy. Nevertheless, the experience has provided new insights into what many would take for granted — that young people who are classified, by whatever measure, as intellectually gifted, take to philosophy like ducks to water. In this paper, I reflect on these insights, supporting both the importance of giving gifted students access to philosophy, but also the broader thesis that philosophy offers something of great importance to all children and teachers.