Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery

Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery is a philosophical novel for children by Matthew Lipman. The novel was Lipman's first, and inaugurated the educational movement known as Philosophy for Children. The book deals with everyday situations which a group of children encounter. These situations then become the substance for mental engagement and thinking about thinking. Rather than looking for answers, the type of thinking encouraged is about prolonging questioning, and performing self-initiated testing on the events or objects under discussion. There is a focus on how to teach ourselves logic by examining the results of the self-initiated tests. The books deal with substantial democratic issues as well such as "should every child go to school?", "should every person salute the flag?" In the early 1970s it entered Montclair Public Schools in New Jersey. Lipman subsequently published an instruction manual to accompany it.