Healing the Culture's 'Philo and Sophie' Teaches Pro-Life Message to Young Children

A new video series from Healing the Culture teaches children to respect human life.

Now more than ever, children need guidance to navigate a world that confuses right and wrong and denies them a true moral compass. Philo and Sophie: Philosophy for Children is a dynamic new video series that gives parents and teachers a powerful tool to form young people in authentic love and respect for the preborn, elderly, disabled, and terminally ill.

Produced by Fr. Robert Spitzer’s pro-life organization, Healing the Culture, Philo and Sophie incorporates key philosophical teachings on logic, happiness, virtue, and moral decision-making that are absent from most educational programs today.

Camille Pauley, President of Healing the Culture, created Philo and Sophie to reach young people while still in their formative years. “Young children can and should understand concepts about the true, the good, and the beautiful before they become exposed to the dark side of today’s culture,” said Pauley. “We use light-hearted puppetry, live actors, animation, and memorable songs to help little ones grasp important concepts such as what true happiness is, what success means, and what defines a human person.”

The curriculum is made up of three units geared toward students as young as kindergarten. The first unit teaches children about the four levels of happiness and how to make good choices. The second unit focuses on what makes human beings valuable and important and explains why vulnerable people deserve special dignity and respect. The third explores contradictions and shows how it isn’t possible for someone to be a person and “not a person” at the same time.

The program features two main puppet characters—Philo (pronounced FEE-lo), an adorable penguin, and Sophie, his delightful mermaid friend. The characters even appear in teacher lesson plans, activities, handouts, and tools for parents. “The program never uses the words abortion or euthanasia,” said Pauley. “Instead, it builds up the intellectual understanding and virtuous character that children will need later in life to immediately recognize abortion and euthanasia as contrary to reason and destructive of true happiness.”

Teachers who have used Philo and Sophie in their classrooms say the characters are funny, relatable, and engaging. Liz McAllister, who taught the program to second-grade children in Seattle, WA commented, “I love that this product is out there! We need to have strong lessons like this to cure the culture.”

Healing the Culture has created other popular curricula, including Principles & Choices for teens and RespectLife.University for college students and adults. Fr. Sean Raftis of the Diocese of Helena has used the Principles & Choices program with high school students. “It hit the nail on the head and gave my students a profound learning experience from which they will benefit for the rest of their lives,” said Raftis. “It not only changed the way they reasoned through ethical dilemmas, for many of them, it changed the way they lived their lives.”

Philo and Sophie is available at no cost to teachers and parents by creating a free account at PhiloAndSophie.org.

still shot from Philo and Sophie video

Healing the Culture is a non-profit organization that promotes the ethical and just treatment of preborn children and their mothers, terminally ill persons, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, by advancing universal principles of logic, ethics, and justice. Through online resources, K-12 curricula, leadership training programs, and media productions, Healing the Culture has helped countless individuals to reject abortion and euthanasia and to become effective pro-life leaders and advocates.