Abstract

From the perspective of the experience of IPO Essay-Writing Contest, whose advances are briefly summarized herein, this paper deals with the question of philosophical writing and its educational value in the context of the high school experience. The central issue is expressed by this question: what gives philosophical relevance to a text? The peculiarities of the English model of the "essay" and of the traditional "short essay" are analyzed from this point of view. The international directives of the Philosophical School Olympics are critically compared to the Italian tradition in the teaching of Philosophy, which is led back to the principal goal of philosophical writing in high school, i.e. the development of critical and personal thought.