A Brief History and Introduction to Caterpillar Institute for Philosophy for Children in Taiwan

Peter Mau-hsiu Yang

Philosophy for children in Taiwan began when Peter Mau-hsiu Yang [楊茂秀] published a children's story entitled "The Philosophical Classroom" in 1975. When Jane Parish Yang [白珍] saw it, she said: "There is someone in the States who is already doing what you are thinking about doing. There is no need to reinvent the wheel!" She then showed him an article just published in the New York Times about Matthew Lipman's Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children [IAPC] in Montclair, New Jersey. She continued: "Why don't you write to Professor Lipman about what you want to do?" She proceeded to assist Peter in writing the letter in English to the States.

Professor Lipman at IAPC immediately answered Peter's letter and sent along a copy of his first textbook, Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery and a draft of the teacher handbook they were in the midst of preparing. In 1976 Peter translated the textbook and began serializing the translation in Ehu yuekan (January-September 1977).

In the summer of 1976 Peter was invited to attend a two-week workshop sponsored by IAPC and Harvard University on the campus of Harvard University, along with professors of philosophy from the east coast who were experimenting with the philosophy for children program. Peter was the only graduate student in attendance. This workshop thus decided the direction of Peter's career with philosophy for children.

In 1978 Peter received his Ph.d in philosophy from Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan and began teaching philosophy in the undergraduate program as well as the graduate school of philosophy at that university. He also began teaching philosophy for children experimental classes in elementary and junior high schools in Taipei County, Taipei City, and Jilong City. In 1983 he received an invitation to teach at IAPC in New Jersey.

In 1984 Peter returned to Taiwan to concentrate on researching and advancing the philosophy for children program in Taiwan. He started doing experimental teaching of philosophy for children in Chengzhang Kindergarten and Haiziguo Kindergarten in Taipei as well as teacher training. At the same time Peter and his colleagues founded a philosophical workshop to carry out research and translate the IAPC curriculum into Mandarin Chinese. The major texts along with the accompanying teachers manuals were completed by 1988 and subsequently published.

In 1990 Caterpillar Foundation was established to support P4C Taiwan Center. In this same year the foundation and the center cooperated with Fu Jen Catholic University to host the Third International Conference of Philosophy for Children [ICPIC] in Fu Jen University outside of Taipei. Participants came from over thirty countries, including Matt Lipman and Ann Sharp from IAPC in the United States.

Over twenty some years the foundation and the center have sponsored many projects. We were the first organization in Taiwan to construct a nature trial in Zhishanyan, a mountain near a suburb of Taipei. We started a reading and storytelling movement. We trained over a thousand storytellers. We are the leading group of the Department of Education's non-profit organizations and have cooperated with the Department of Education, the Red Cross, Guangda Foundation and many other organizations to promote family reading, especially in poor and remote areas of Taiwan.

In all our activities, we place emphasis on understanding children and their environment together with philosophy in the spirit of P4C. We always try to form a community of inquiry first and follow the guiding principle of 'do not block the way of inquiry.'

Our center in Taiwan has two physical spaces: one in Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, and the second on the southeast coast in Taitung, a city and county with many aboriginal peoples. We are planning to set up centers in every county in Taiwan to promote family reading and philosophical discussion. We also want to bring our program into the mainstream school curriculum. Our publication department has published the IAPC curriculum and some curriculum developed here in Taiwan. We publish a monthly journal entitled Ertong Zhexue [Philosophy for Children]. We also hold workshops to train writers, editors, and illustrators to edit, write and illustrate children's books that contain philosophical principles.