A Study of an Appropriate Method of Using Philosophy for Children (P4C) in Iran

Some of those who are interested in the Program of Philosophy for Children (P4C) in Iran have tried to pave the way for using it for Iranian children by translating Lipman’s works. However, the translated works, such as Bahreini’s translation of Lisa, have some cultural problems. Another group has tried to rewrite Lipman’s stories in a way to decrease their cultural load. In this regard, we can refer to Sa‘id Naji’s Leila, which has been written in 11 chapters and 29 parts based on Lipman’s Lisa. In this book, Iranian names have replaced the foreign ones in order to strengthen the connection between the story and children. However, it is difficult for Iranian children to communicate with some of the stories. Hence, it is necessary to employ other methods in order to create appropriate stories for Iranian children. For instance, if we can replace some parts of the novel of Lisa with certain Iranian stories, it might be more fruitful. For example, instead of the story of Pablo’s Death or the question of if we can kill animals, we can use the story of “The White Cat” in Sandbadnameh or the story of “Shaykh Garakani and the Cat”. The writers of this paper believe that this strategy might increase children’s interest in reading the related stories.