ther academic tasks and not just as icing on the cake, so to speak.
So when I began teaching philosophy to elementary-school children,
I followed almost the reverse procedure to Zajac’s. I began where she
ended: by reading the children a story. It’s true that I chose ones to read
because of their philosophical content, but many children’s books raise
philosophical issues, so this was not much of a departure.
I might, for example, read them one of Arnold Lobel’s wonderful
Frog and Toad stories, such as “Dragons and Giants” or “Cookies” (both
in Lobel 1999). When I was done reading the story, I would ask the kids
a question about what I took to be the central philosophical concept in
the story. If I’d read them “Cookies”—a story in which Frog and Toad
try different tactics to keep themselves from gorging on the delicious