For 2500 years, philosophy has been the exclusive province of a handful of adults with the time and the motivation to think about ideas that mattered to them. Until very recently, young people had been excluded from this process, mainly because philosophy was thought to be too difficult a subject for children to study. Yet we know that children, from a young age, are fascinated and puzzled by the same kinds of ideas that interested Plato and Socrates - ideas such as truth, goodness, fairness, beauty, real, the mind, and so on. Furthermore, it has long been known that children's reasoning and moral judgment need to be strengthened. The introduction of philosophy in the elementary school was the response that the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) offered to meet such a need. Since its inception in 1974, the IAPC has pioneered the development of curriculum materials and pedagogical methods that engage young people in reasoning and judgment through the practice of philosophy. Today, Philosophy for Children is the outstanding curriculum for grade school philosophy in over fifty countries worldwide.