Since 2014, PLATO has sponsored a summer teaching and learning seminar for teachers, librarians, administrators, and other classroom professionals at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers (AAPT)biennial conference. Through readings and interactive experiences over four mornings, seminar participants engage in a community of reflection aimed at developing and improving philosophy teaching in schools. 

Topics include preparing to teach (for example, syllabus design), developing learner-centered philosophy classes, various methods for introducing philosophy, using traditional and non-traditional methods of assessment, and engaging in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Participants are encouraged to attend the regular AAPT Conference sessions each afternoon and evening. In the past, the friendships and collegial relationships built here have been an invaluable part of this experience.

Philosophy Camp! [This seminar} is the opportunity to share pedagogical ideas with like-minded educators while engaging in deep philosophical discussion about the big questions.   I would DEFINITELY recommend it to others, even if they didn’t have a philosophy background.— Past Seminar Participant

This year’s conference will be held at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio (near Columbus), July 27-31. The cost of the conference, except for meals, is covered by PLATO, helped by a generous grant from the American Philosophical Association. PLATO also covers up to $300 in travel costs. 

There is space for up to 15 participants. Applications are due March 25.

More information and the application are available here.

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Public Philosophy, Education, and Social Justice Webinar

Join us on Thursday, February 10^th, 2022 at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific for a webinar Public Philosophy, Education, and Social Justice, co-sponsored in collaboration by PLATO, the Public Philosophy Network (PPN), and the Kegley Institute of Ethics. The fourth in a series of PLATO webinars, this event will feature an in-depth panel discussion of cultivating impactful and innovative philosophy programming toward ends of social justice and will be moderated by Dr. Michael Burroughs, Director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics at CSU Bakersfield.

Register for webinar at: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0uf-iorTspGd1oY1ubqVCWH_0CLEbwVzwW

Event panelists include: Dr. Briana Toole (Founder, Corrupt the Youth), Dr. Sol Neely (Founder, The Flying University), Dr. Kyle Robertson (Leader, Ethics Bowl, Children & Jail Programs, UC Santa Cruz Center for Public Philosophy), and Adam Blazej (Coordinator, Rethink).

Panelists:

Adam Blazej is a coordinator of Rethink, a collective of NYC teachers and students promoting philosophical engagement outside a traditional academic context, mainly through the co-facilitation of small, participant-centered discussions in coordination with various community organizations. Since 2013, Rethink has primarily worked with members of marginalized groups, including people directly impacted by mass incarceration and victims of domestic abuse, sex trafficking, and related forms of gender violence. Adam is also an adjunct philosophy professor completing his dissertation on hope and education.

Sol Neely is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an Associate Professor of English and American Indian Studies at Heritage University, located on the Yakama Nation reservation (Yakmumamí Tiichám). Before relocating to Central Washington in 2020, he taught at the University of Alaska Southeast (Lingít Aaní) for eleven years, where he founded the Flying University, a prison-education program that brings university students inside the prison for mutual and collaborative study.

Kyle Robertson is a lecturer in the UC Santa Cruz philosophy department and cofounder of the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz. He teaches at Mount Tamalpais College in San Quentin State Prison where he organizes an annual Ethics Bowl.

Briana Toole is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College. She is the founder and executive director of the philosophy outreach program, Corrupt the Youth.

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We have supported summer camps and institutes, community activities, ethics workshops, curriculum development, outreach programs, philosophy clubs, and more.

We are now accepting applications.  Applications are due January 31, 2022.

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We are happy to announce that PLATO is merging with the Center for Philosophy for Children.

As of January 1, 2022, the newly merged organization will be known as PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization), an independent nonprofit registered in Washington State. It will now have the capacity to expand the work in which both organizations have been engaged for many years: to support and advance philosophy for young people. PLATO will continue to bring together the education and philosophy communities, empowering the voices of young people, and endorsing a wide range of philosophical approaches and methods.

Among its expanded activities and programs, the newly merged PLATO, which will now have a paid staff of four, will fund innovative philosophy programs around the United States; run online and in-person classes, workshops, and webinars for educators, families, and students; offer an intensive 10-week online program, Philosophy in Schools; help schools around the world develop philosophy programs; run a Philosophers in the Schools program; publish two journals (Questions:  Philosophy for Young People and Precollege Philosophy and Public Practice); and convene both a biennial conference and a biennial teaching and learning seminar for teachers.

As part of this change, the Center for Philosophy for Children will cease being a University of Washington Academic Research Center and will no longer hold any formal affiliation with the University of Washington. PLATO will continue to collaborate with the University of Washington and faculty in the Department of Philosophy on projects concerning philosophy for young people. Although there will be no financial or legal ties between PLATO and the University, we anticipate a continued mutually supportive relationship between the university and the newly merged organization.

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PLATO is excited to present a panel discussion with five high school teachers from across the United States about successfully incorporating philosophy in high schools. Participants will have a chance to interact with the panelists in breakout rooms after the presentations. 

Panelists:

 MaryZoe Bowden lives in Florida and has taught something in every grade from pre-K through college level classes. She loves asking questions, and tries to remember she doesn’t always have the answers. 

 Dan Fouts is a high school social studies teacher from the Chicagoland area with 30 years of experience. He has led curriculum teams, served as departmental instructional coach and spearheaded the creation of a philosophy elective, which he has taught for 10 years. 

Terrance McKittrick is a Language Arts teacher at Nova High School, a public alternative school in Seattle, Washington. He has been teaching philosophy there for over twenty-one years. 

 Carl Rosin teaches English and philosophy at Radnor High School in Pennsylvania. He serves on the Ethics Program Advisory Committee at Villanova University and is assistant academic director for a summer program at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. 

 Wendy Way is a social studies teacher at Bethpage High School on Long Island, New York, where she teaches 3 sections of philosophy to 11th and 12th graders. She is also the advisor for the philosophy club and the coach for the school’s ethics bowl team. 

The post Virtual Event: High School Philosophy Teaching appeared first on PLATO.

Philosophy Across the Generations

APA Eastern Division Meeting

January 5—January 8, 2022

Montreal, Canada

The Philosophy Teaching and Learning Organization (PLATO) seeks panelists for a session on engaging with philosophy across the generations, at the AAPT-APA Teaching Hub at the 2022 APA Eastern Division meeting, January 5—January 8, 2022, in Montreal Canada.

We envision approximately three different presentations on innovative approaches to doing public philosophy across the lifespan and strategies for using philosophy as a vehicle for intergenerational dialogue and encounter: college students working with seniors in their community, teens engaging with adults and children in philosophical discussions and activities. Public philosophy has a growing profile in our polarized society, and talking together across generations about difficult matters and perennial questions has become a critical and all-too-rare skill.

We invite contributions on methods of intergenerational engagement;  one’s own experiences doing intergenerational philosophy; the distinctive need, interest, and value of intergenerational programming; ideas for the topics and modes of inquiry that are particularly well-suited for an intergenerational audience; discussion of the institutional and professional challenges or possibilities for promoting intergenerational philosophy; and areas of overlap with existing work in Philosophy for Children and the philosophy of aging more generally.

Consistent with the ethos of the Teaching Hub, we expect presentations to be short, maybe twenty minutes, so as to both present the programs you have developed but leave sufficient time for audience questions, discussion, and possibly an activity. We will appreciate proposals which include concrete ideas about how to make the session interactive.

Submissions: Proposals of no more than 500 words, prepared for anonymous review, should be sent to Roberta Israeloff, risraeloff@squirefoundation.org, by July 31, 2021. Use the subject line “APA-E/PLATO Proposal.” Please include a brief explanation of both your approach to developing your program/activity and your own experiences doing so. Supporting material, such as syllabi or handouts, is also welcome. We are interested in ensuring representation of a range of voices. We expect to select presenters by early August.

Submit Proposals to: Roberta Israeloff, risraeloff@squirefoundation.org

Email Subject Line: APA-E/PLATO Proposal

Deadline for Proposals          7/31/2021.

Selection of Presenters         early August

If you have any questions about the session, please feel free to contact Roberta Israeoff, risraeloff@squirefoundation.org

The AAPT-APA Teaching Hub is a series of interactive workshops and conversations designed specifically for philosophers and created to celebrate teaching within the context of the APA divisional meetings. Jointly organized by the APA Committee on the Teaching of Philosophy and the American Association of Philosophy Teachers, the Teaching Hub aims to offer a range of high quality and inclusive development opportunities that address the teaching of philosophy at all levels, pre-college though graduate school.

A stable version of the call will live on the CTP page of the APA website: http://www.apaonline.org/group/teaching, where you can find additional information about other Teaching Hub calls, the Committee on Teaching Philosophy’s Facebook page, and the Committee’s activities, which include the administration of the 2022 Prize for Excellence in Philosophy Teaching, the nominations for which are due on August 5, 2021.

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We often talk about why philosophy is good for kids, but why are kids good for philosophy? 

PLATO is proud to host a virtual panel discussion followed by a community conversation featuring:

Jana Mohr Lone, Director of the University of Washington Center for Philosophy for Children and author of Seen and Not Heard: Why Children’s Voices Matter

Megan Laverty, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Education at the Teachers College, Columbia University and co-editor of Gareth B. Matthews, The Child’s Philosopher

Maughn Gregory, Professor of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University, Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, and co-editor of Gareth B. Matthews, The Child’s Philosopher

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The Big Ideas for Young Thinkers book series focuses on innovative ideas for teaching philosophy to pre-college students. This webinar brings together Dr. Claire Katz, Dr. Erik Kenyon, and Dr. Wendy Turgeon, authors of three books in the series to discuss their groundbreaking work in this field. The webinar will be moderated by Dr. Thomas Wartenberg, series editor and author.

• Do pre-k students have the cognitive skills necessary to engage in philosophical inquiry?
• What would entice a student to attend a summer camp on philosophy?
• How can fairy tales prompt philosophical discussions if they are intended to advance one particular moral claim?

After their presentations, break-out sessions will allow audience members to interact with the author whose work they find most interesting.

The post Meet the Authors of the Big Ideas for Young Thinkers Book Series appeared first on PLATO.

Explore all six episodes of Little Voices, Big Ideas:

Episode one: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sandak

Episode two: Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock retold by Eric A. Kimmel

Episode three: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson

Episode four: The True Story of The 3 Little Pigs as told by Jon Scieszka

Episode five: The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Episode six: Fanny’s Dream by Caralyn Buehner

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The second resource is the curriculum series Wise Owl: Talking and Thinking about Children’s Literature(https://www.montclair.edu/iapc/wise-owl/) that Matthews developed with educators in Amherst public schools in the 1980s. The series is designed to use children’s literature to provide primary school students the opportunity to explore philosophical questions while developing critical and creative thinking skills. Each Wise Owl packet includes a Teacher’s Guide to the philosophical issues in a children’s book and to facilitating philosophical discussions with young people, along with reproducible Activity Cards with philosophical discussion questions based on the book. Similar guides to other children’s books can be found at Matthews’ Philosophy for Kids website (http://www.philosophyforkids.com/).

The third resource is a webpage about Gareth B. Matthews under the IAPC Fellows rubric, which includes links to the above pages, as well as a link to the first-ever complete curriculum vitae of his publications in the three sub-fields he helped to initiate: philosophy in children’s literature, philosophy of childhood, and philosophy for/with children. This is an invaluable resource for researchers.

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