Conversation with Pieter Mosteert

Pieter Mostert (* 1952), went to school in Geleen, The Netherlands. Before studying philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, he spent a year in Tyler, Minnesota [1970-71) as a foreign exchange student. Both his parents were teachers. His mother belonged to the first generation of teachers who were influenced by the pedagogy of Maria Montessori.
During his philosophy study, he was introduced to the "Socratic method", as developed by the German neo-Kantian philosopher Leonard Nelson. A few years later, 1981, he became aware of the existence of the IAPC, ordered the available materials and started publishing about philosophy for children. In 1983, he attended the summer school, offered by the IAPC. A large international delegation worked and discussed together for three full weeks.
In 1984 he facilitated the first philosophical dialogues in a primary school in the Netherlands. In 1988 he finished a PhD thesis on the aims and methods of teaching philosophy, which he had written together with his colleague Karel van der Leeuw. In 1989 they founded the Dutch Centre of Philosophy for Children, which still is a key player within Dutch education.
From 1990 on, he worked as an educational consultant for quite a few years. In 2002 he visited South-Africa for the first time. In 2012 he decided to move to South Africa, where he became a gardener and a conversation-specialist.
Early 2019 he moved to England, where he is living in Dorchester, with his South-African wife and her two sons. There, he works as a 'community member' for the youth court. His conversations are with young offenders about whether they want to change the track of their lives and what they need to make that possible. In essence, these conversations are about what it is to have a good life and what effort is needed to achieve that.
His most recent idea is that philosophical conversations don't need questions at all. Through the ages, philosophers have overestimated the importance of questions. Actually, they're rather obsolete.