We recently interviewed Rick Coste, a writer, podcaster, and philosopher living in New England. His weekly podcast Philosophy Walk is hosted at the official site PhilosophyWalk.com. The podcast currently has a listener base in over 80 countries. A sister site PhilosophyWalkTV.com was launched in the summer of 2013 and is geared towards a younger audience … Interview with Rick Coste, Creater of Philosophywalk
In my earlier post, I mentioned assigning a dialogue as an alternative to a formal essay. Here is an example of each format on the topic of personal identity: Personal identity essay 2 from S Goldberg’s class personal identity sample paper from S.Goldberg’s class
What makes something beautiful?Each year one of the paper assignments I give to my undergraduate students is as follows: 1. List 10 songs that you think are beautiful and 10 songs that you think are ugly. 2. For each song, write two-three sentences about why you think it’s beautiful or ugly. After the … Music and beauty
The Australasian Journal for Philosophy in Schools (AJPS) is the official journal of The Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations (FAPSA). The focus of the journal is research into philosophy with school-aged children. What was once called Philosophy with Children has developed into a sub-discipline of philosophy with its own history, traditions and pedagogy and … New journal focused on philosophy in schools
I write a lot about picture books and the role they can play in encouraging children to develop their philosophical thinking. I’ve been thinking about the special role of picture books for inspiring inquiry about aesthetics. Picture books are a unique mixture of literature and visual art, and generate the discovery of meaning through a … Picture Books and Aesthetics
I’m a Frog is another gem of a picture book by Mo Willems, published this year. It’s one of a series of books about best friends Piggie and Elephant Gerald. Willems’ books are clever and thoughtful, and frequently philosophically provocative. In I’m a Frog, Piggie tells Gerald that she is a frog. Gerald perplexed, responds, “I … I’m a Frog!
Mark Balawender, PLATO’s communication coordinator and grad student at Michigan State recently interviewed Elena Spitzer, a graduate student at Wisconsin about her project, the tumblr website, A Philosopher at Work: 1) Mark: This project is really interesting, and it looks like you’re getting lots of participation. Can you … Elena Spitzer: Pictures of a Philosopher At Work (as drawn by non-philosophers)
Existentialism Seminar An NEH Summer Seminar for School Teachers: Thomas E. Wartenberg, Director Seminar Description Existentialism, though an important philosophical movement in the twentieth century, remains influential to this day. This seminar will acquaint school teachers with the basic philosophical ideas of Existentialist philosophy by introducing them to the writings of such thinkers as Søren … NEH Summer Philosophy Seminar for Teachers!
A plug for the philosophical suggestiveness of books by Dr. Suess! And for entering a philosophy session not knowing where it will lead. Today I read the story The Lorax, published in 1971, with a second grade class. In the story, the Once-ler describes how he arrived in a town full of Truffula Trees, with their … The Lorax
Any topic an instructor introduces in class is worth taking seriously, and this includes religion. My goal is neither to convert the unbeliever nor destroy the faith of the believer, rather to situate myself in the middle of a dialogue and coax those who think of themselves as on a side to engage the other … Chris Freiler: Approaching Religion in Philosophy
PLATO is part of a global UNESCO network that encourages children to participate in philosophical inquiry. As a partner in the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, PLATO is connected to other educational leaders around the world.
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