What, if any, philodendren is safe for the preschool classroom?

Question

I am interested in adding plants to my classroom. I have a heart-leaf philodendren at home and would like to add it to my class

Answer 1

It's probably best to avoid taking a Philodendron into the classroom. There are many references to toxicity from ingestion, although the linked medical paper reports that reported cases were not that serious.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1749055

You may put yourself in a bad position with parents and administration if a child was to ingest some plant material and have a bad reaction, no matter how minor. You could be blamed for poor judgement in bringing a plant with a reputation for toxicity into the classroom.

There are many other plants without this reputation or potential.

Answer 2

Green, leafy and fairly low maintenance, philodendrons are among the more popular house plants. They also contain a toxin in their leaves called calcium oxalate. If ingested by pets or children, they could cause inflammation of the mucus membranes in the mouth and throat.
These plants are considered, child safe plants.

Christmas Cactus
Coleus
Boston Fern
Spider Plant
Jade Plant
African Violets
Miniature rose
Wandering Jew