JERUSALEM – If the big question these days in Jewish education is how to help children find meaning in Jewish tradition, perhaps a few tools borrowed from philosophy might help. What is the good life? What is God? How do you know what's true?

A group of educators representing the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Montclair State University are now in the process of creating a curriculum around these questions that will be piloted at the religious school of Temple Sinai in Summit.

The curriculum will mark the first time Philosophy for Children, an educational movement launched at Montclair State in 1970 by Matthew Lipman, will be applied to religious education.

Philosophy for Children, or P4C, as it is known, was Lipman's attempt to teach critical thinking skills to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The curriculum entered Montclair schools in the early 1970s, and by 1974 the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, or IAPC, had been established at Montclair State.

P4C is a secular curriculum, distinguished by its idea of the classroom as a "community of inquiry." Students generally sit in a circle; they read from a text, often a novel, and then, guided by their teacher, ask questions, listen to each other, and rethink their ideas. The goal is for children to develop listening skills, respect for their fellow students, the ability to ask certain kinds of questions of the text, support their ideas, and revise their ideas based on others' comments.

Today the curriculum has been implemented in 20 countries. In 2007, an international umbrella organization, the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children, held its conference in Israel, where P4C has been introduced in the secular arena but not in the field of Jewish education. Thanks to the efforts of several educators in Israel, however, that may all change.

One of these educators is Jen Glaser, faculty member of the Mandel Leadership Institute in Jerusalem, and newly elected president of ICPIC.

Glaser, who holds a doctoral degree in philosophy, believes P4C and Jewish education are a natural fit. In fact, she's been combining her love for philosophy and Jewish education since at least the 1980s, when, still in her native Australia, she was asked to start a Jewish day school.

"It gave me the opportunity to think, what should Jewish education be about?" said Glaser, who met with NJJN at a coffeehouse in Jerusalem. "What I had learned was that to be a serious liberal Jew – a non-Orthodox Jew, a ‘Jew by choice,' was not normatively determined. It needed to come from me. I decide how ought I live. That's a classic philosophical question."

As she was considering how to transfer these questions into Jewish education, she came across P4C, and threw herself into it, pursuing a doctorate in philosophy at Melbourne University focusing on the philosophical underpinnings of P4C. She eventually taught on the education faculty and in the philosophy department there before making aliya in 1994.

She continued to work on the idea of philosophical inquiry for children, and remained affiliated with P4C, maintaining her close connection with Montclair State. When she moved to Israel, she brought her professional interest with her as she became a visiting fellow at the Melton Centre for a year.

Enter Howard Deitcher, director of the Melton Centre, who has been involved with P4C for 15 years, beginning with a stint as a third-grade Bible teacher at SAR Academy in the Bronx's Riverdale section.

"I was fascinated by the rich and intriguing questions that the children posed about the biblical narrative, and this encouraged me to explore further the world of the child and their ability to consider deep and complex philosophical questions in a meaningful way," he said.

P4C, he said, "held enormous promise for teaching children Bible."

The Melton Centre, under his direction, is committed to the approach of P4C. "It allows us to gain deeper insight into the questions and dilemmas that face the child when she encounters the biblical text," said Deitcher. "It adds new layers of meaning to the learning experience and invites teachers as well as students to raise questions that they may not have considered otherwise."

Patti Kahn, director of education at Temple Sinai, a Reform synagogue, and a graduate of the Melton Senior Educators program, attended the Israel conference at Glaser and Deitcher's invitation. "They asked if I had any interest in exploring this project with them," said Kahn in a conversation at Caffit, a popular restaurant on Jerusalem's Emek Refaim Street. "It was just one of those things. My adrenaline went wild!"

When they suggested that Temple Sinai serve as the pilot school, she said, "I shouted for joy." She was also surprised to learn that IAPC was located "right in my backyard," in Montclair.

She took a private mini course in P4C before the conference, and observed a local fifth-grade public school class using the method. She was impressed, she said, with the way the students interacted with each other.

"The kids waited respectfully, listened, and responded," said Kahn. "They spoke to one another in a beautiful way, creating a community of inquiry and dialogue. It's an exemplary way for us to bring up a new generation of people."

She can already envision the lesson on Abraham and Sarah welcoming guests into the tent. "If we took a small piece of the story and the children took turns reading and then asking questions of the text, eventually they would come to inquire about some nitty gritty aspects of biblical teachings, biblical culture, and the differences between our culture and the Bible. They would create personal meaning by a deep understanding about what that small piece of text is about. You could use this for Pirkei Avot and Jewish values too."

Although still early in the process, the curriculum, Kahn hopes, will be ready to implement during the 2007-2008 school year. At first, it will be an eight- to 10-week project involving three teachers and one age group (seventh-graders) for one trimester.

She thinks the biggest challenge, aside from funding, will be training the teachers. The entire staff would receive two days of training to understand the principles of P4C and infuse them generally into the curriculum.

For Glaser, there is more at stake than the education of one seventh-grade class.

"It's great for Israel and for Montclair State University," she said. "It enables us to make a real contribution to the field of religious education and Jewish education."

If all goes according to plan, said Kahn, "Students will ask bigger questions: What is God? What is the meaning of life? Where do I fit in this community? What lessons from the Torah have meaning for me? Who is the other in my community and how can I interact with that person?"

She acknowledges that P4C is just one model that doesn't answer every question in Jewish education. "It depends on the kids and the questions they ask." Still she said, "it absolutely furthers the goal: creating personal meaning. We want kids to say, ‘I can find myself in Torah.'"