In the last chapter, I said I would discuss what I called the regulation
problem, that is, how a teacher could facilitate a philosophical discussion
among children that was likely to produce a good outcome. This
problem is especially acute since most teachers are not experts in philosophy.
We have already seen that it is possible for a teacher to lead
such a discussion because he is not expected to transmit his specialized
knowledge of significant philosophical ideas or theories, a task that he
is probably not prepared to undertake. Instead, his role is to facilitate a
philosophical discussion among his students in which the students work
out among themselves their own answer(s) to philosophical questions
stemming from a story that has just been read to them. But how, exactly,
is a teacher supposed to oversee such a discussion?