Co-op Warm Spaces Funding Boost has provided £1,355 of match funding
Once Upon an If - stories at the library
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Aim
We will run philosophy and story-inspired events from Forest Hill Community library out of hours to bring people and thinking together.
Who are we?
The Philosophy Foundation’s aim when doing philosophy is to allow beneficiaries the opportunity to improve their communication skills and deepen their thinking, their understanding of the world and of themselves, their experiences and other people, by refining how they think about those things through collaborative, critical reflection.
Our goal is that, by doing philosophy, beneficiaries learn to think better, to act more wisely and thereby help to improve their educational opportunities as well as the quality of their and others’ lives.
We run philosophy sessions in schools, communities, and other educational environments including prisons and hospital schools.
Community impact
There is good evidence to suggest that teaching people to engage with ideas and each other through philosophy has untold benefits for the individual and wider society. Furthermore, in an age of increasing diversity we need to equip young people with the habits and tools to think carefully and make reasonable judgements on their own and in groups.
At The Philosophy Foundation we believe that reasoning skills developed through philosophical enquiry are an indispensable foundation of all aspects of learning and that philosophy, like maths, music or physical education, is intrinsically worth doing and intrinsically engaging.
So our expert philosophers facilitate enquiries in schools, communities and the workplace with the overall aim to equip beneficiaries to be able to participate fully in society.
There is a growing body of evidence that children and adults who participate in regular philosophical enquiry gain vital skills that include, but are not limited to, critical thinking and problem-solving. The attainment of these skills has the impact of helping learners to:
- Succeed in academic endeavours at all educational levels
- Improve their mental health and wellbeing
- Thrive in a changing global economy
By working with disadvantaged young people and communities, we are bringing philosophical thinking skills to those who will benefit most from having them.
In 2017 King's College London and The Philosophy Foundation conducted a study into the teaching of critical thinking skills in primary school classes with children aged 8-10. The study showed a 63% increase in successful use of critical thinking and metacognitive skills through philosophical enquiry over just one term. Studies also show that engaging pupils, including the most disadvantaged, in philosophical activities can improve their achievements, and provide young people the crucial skills needed to scrutinise and challenge fake news. Impacts of philosophy on education skills include:
- Develops analytical, critical and problem-solving capabilities
- Develops speaking and listening skills, verbal reasoning and metacognition
- Develops collaborative, creative and critical enquiry skills
- Gives people confidence in dealing with fundamental and challenging questions
- Helps close the attainment gap. Philosophical enquiry helps raise attainment in pupils most affected by poverty.
Alongside these benefits, young people consistently find philosophy engaging and of intrinsic value to their lives. Recent feedback from 200 students taking part in our sessions showed 85% of them saying they enjoyed the philosophy, and 100% saying that other children should learn critical thinking (CT) skills through philosophy, even if they said they didn’t enjoy learning the CT skills themselves!
“Yes, I think philosophy should be taught to others, because if everyone did philosophy everyone would think better, and would think more of life, and if you do it enough it can make you a better person.” Year 6 Pupil.
Philosophy can also be used to develop skills that are crucial for the future of work. It has been shown to develop 7 of the top 10 skills needed by 2025 as cited in The World Economic Forum's The Future of Jobs Report 2020:
- Analytical thinking and innovation
- Active learning and learning strategies
- Complex problem-solving
- Critical thinking and analysis
- Creativity, originality and initiative
- Resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility
- Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation
Today more than ever we need the understanding, critical thinking skills and perspective that philosophy brings.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The Philosophy Foundation is based at Forest Hill Community Library and work in schools across the country. Funding in education and the charity sector has been reduced due to the cost of living and inflation, and our work has been impacted as a result. We are not able to reach as many beneficiaries as previous years, and may have to cut back further.
We are crowdfunding in order to help us raise enough money to run out-of-hours events for young people and adults at Forest Hill Library. This will give people an opportunity to meet in the warmth and engage in conversations around stories, films and books.
How we’ll spend the money raised
Forest Hill Library is a volunteer-run library, which provides a space for learning, creativity and work. It also needs support to be able to continue to provide vital community services and we will be using the new room they have set up at the back of the library for community events.
We will run philosophy sessions for different ages, book events, storytelling evenings and film nights - all with a twist of thinking.
The money we raise, if match-funded by the co-op, will give us enough money to pay for the room at the back of the library, to help support the library itself, pay for our specialist philosophy teachers to run 60 hours of events at the library and pays for our core team to be able to organise and set up the events in the first place.
This project successfully funded on 28th February 2023