Something is missing in schooling. Frequently, by the time children reach third grade, the sense of wonder with which they entered kindergarten – wonder out of which authentic thinking and philosophy develops – has begun to diminish.

By 6th grade it has practically disappeared. A major contributing factor to this loss of wonder is the failure to properly nurture the true voices of children. Children’s thinking focuses instead on what the teacher expects and it is rare for students and teachers to regularly have the opportunity in a classroom setting to inquire together into topics and questions that make a difference in their lives.

Schools instead encourage students to be uncritical consumers of information and their individual interests, questions, comments, experiences, beliefs and curiosity are completely ignored. Due to a variety of pressures, both internal and external, the typical classroom teacher does not appear to have time for children’s genuine wondering and questioning, from which structured inquiries can grow. This apparent lack of time is exacerbated by the fact that most teachers simply have never been exposed to this type of inquiry. Such inquiry requires a pedagogical shift from teacher to co-participant where no one knows where the inquiry will end up. If teachers are ever to use p4c this successfully in their own classrooms, they need time and guidance in learning how to conduct such inquiries.

Schools must move from being institutions that provide students with extrinsic meanings to institutions that provide students with the necessary circumstances and tools that will allow each to personally construct meaning in their own learning and lives. The goal of p4c Hawai‘i is to move school culture from a top-down model to a community-based, participatory model grounded in sound pedagogy and effective educational philosophy. While guided by this goal, p4c Hawai‘i recognizes that meaningful reform is not and never will be a “quick fix.” From the beginning its approach has been to start with the teachers and to then find every way possible to support these teachers both in their classrooms and as faculty in a school setting. This has helped to create a deep seated commitment among the teachers to p4c as a basic approach to teaching, not just another passing programmatic fad.