Fed up with musical chairs? Can’t afford an entertainer? Then maybe you should try a new fad sweeping France: children’s tea parties with cakes, fruit juice — and metaphysics.

While their counterparts in Britain and elsewhere are fishing apples out of a bowl of water with their teeth, French children are debating the meaning of life, death and love.

Les goûters philos — philosophical teas — have become a craze among families who are convinced that children as young as 6 should start grappling with issues that taxed the likes of Socrates and Thomas Aquinas.

Although some may dismiss it as further proof of their pretentiousness, the French see it as an attempt to give children a handle on an increasingly complex world.

Proponents of les goûters philos argue that the subject needs to be broached at an early age when children start asking existential questions.

The parties are held in cafés, public libraries and at home and involve food, drink … and debate.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7138713.ece