The best teacher I ever had at leading discussions had a fantastic approach to this kind of thing. Because there are so many things that keep people from talking, including a simple need for thinking time. So she would pose some question and then she would sit there, completely patient and content, and wait for people to start talking--five, ten, fifteen minutes.
Oh that's brilliant. Sadly I don't think we had time enough for that approach.

That is certainly the good fight :) and far, far too rare an approach.
Sad, isn't it? Although we heard on the grapevine that out of the three courses that were being run by the three churches in our town, all the kids thought that ours was far the most interesting! :)

As you say, though, there's an awful lot of experience and conditioning there that most kids have--I can see why that would take a great effort to start to get around.
It's understandable though, that when children are small you teach them 'this is how it is' to give them a basic understanding. ("God is good, and he wants everyone to be good too.") But to jump from that to actual theology and philosophy is... quite something. Hopefully we at least gave them the right tools.

It is fantastically rewarding, though, when you know you've gotten them to seriously re-examine their thinking :)
It really is. And towards the end, they'd start talking straight away, coming up with ideas and connections and their own opinions and it was brilliant. :)

(I had a rather unusual upbringing when it comes to my faith. I'll tell you about it when I find some more spare time...)