High School Philosophy Club: A Place to Be Real?

Guest blogger Andrew Chirdon writes on the Philosophy Club at downtown Manhattan’s Elisabeth Irwin High School, which has been flourishing since PhD Student Yoshi Nakazawa brought it into being five years ago. Though the club now functions independently of outreach volunteers, the club president is eager to schedule visits from philosophy graduate students in the Fall of 2014.

For local high school students, philosophy club is a space to have fun as well as a space to explore ideas unable to be expressed in class.  This atmosphere has kept students like the Club President, Emmett, attending every Friday for four years to discuss a variety of topics. What about philosophical discussion – apart from it being fun and free of restrictions – is so rewarding? According to Emmett the answer has to do with philosophy’s ability to generate a wealth of conversation, or what others might call rich and meaningful conversation.

Perhaps for this reason, Emmett believes the club can mostly run on its own. There is little need to poke and prod or to fret; students’ natural interest draws them back. Since Emmett was a freshman, the club’s average attendance has ranged between 15 to 20. The true challenge for the club is not keeping students once they have come, it is to have them come in the first place. Every Friday the last period of the day is reserved as time for students to attend a club of their choosing, and with nearly 15 to choose from, philosophy can be lost in the shuffle. Emmett did not seem dismayed at the competition for student’s attention – in fact he seemed pleased with it – but he did acknowledge that it makes attendance lighter at times.

Nevertheless, the tempting glitz and glam of other clubs does little to sidetrack the philosophy club’s core of students. As Emmett put it, describing other classes, “When there is a lesson, you have to do the lesson.” “It is nice to have a period where the point is just to talk.” The allure of developing often unvoiced ideas discovered in other classes is too appealing to be ignored, so students keep coming back to philosophy club.

The most common topic of discussion is language – a surprising choice considering it is a lesser known subject of professional philosophy. Perhaps the preoccupation comes from a related interest, which Emmett described as a desire to identify what keeps people in metaphorical chains. “All men are born free, but everywhere he is in chains,” said Emmett, quoting Rousseau. And, perhaps, chief amongst these chains is the inability to precisely express oneself. According to Emmett, “When you give something a label, it has become real.” Cast in this light, language is not so much an innocuous tool for mankind but its master, controlling what is possible in deed and thought.

With the special emphasis placed on language as a limiting agent, it makes sense that communication is paramount between the club members and between past and future club presidents. To ensure that the club is passed into good hands, Emmett plans to uphold the tradition of asking for feedback at the end of the year then giving that feedback to his successor. What worked, what did not work, what would students like to discuss next year? A highlight of the hopes for next year is that the club becomes better connected with the community. This means that Emmett hopes for more guest speakers and more opportunities for students to philosophize with other schools, especially schools where philosophy is part of the curriculum.

As for Emmett himself, next year he will attend Bard College, where he plans to double major in pre-med and a foreign language. What about philosophy? Will that fall by the wayside? With a touch of mirth in his voice – as if the answer was so obvious it was not worth mentioning – he replied that he will certainly continue studying philosophy. After all, a doctor should know the difference between right and wrong.

And here we all can learn a lesson from this story about a high school philosophy club. Whatever your position, age, race, sex, and ability, philosophy is for you. We all need to know the difference between right and wrong, how to analyze ourselves and our world, how to dive deeply into the mysteries of life. This point bears special significance to older generations who feel they have a monopoly on the truth. We need philosophy and we need to recognize philosophy as something belonging to everyone. To paraphrase Emmett, ‘Keep an open mind. Students might be younger and less experienced, but if you listen carefully, they too have something important to say about life.’

Andrew Chirdon is a former outreach volunteer and philosophy graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. He currently lives in New York City and is eager to stay involved in philosophy outreach. He can be contacted at achirdon501 at gmail.com.

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Square Pegs, Round Holes, and Philosophy in Schools

I was recently asked by the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO) to write about my thoughts on philosophy in K-12 schools. You can read my blog post here: Square Pegs, Round Holes, and Philosophy in Schools. Tell us what you think!

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Philosophy as a Required Course at Columbia Secondary School

During the 2012-2013 school year, Outreach Fellows Jessica Davis and Michael Schapira observed classes and facilitated a homework study group with the ninth graders of Columbia Secondary School — a school which uniquely offers philosophy courses to grades six through twelve. Philosophy instructor Diana Senechal created the high school curriculum, which includes an impressive spectrum of philosophy readings, including names as diverse as Buber and Tolstoy.

Professor Senechal has gained permission to allow us to share with you some work written by her students. You can find a sample of her student’s work in ethics here (with some context about the piece, written by Senechal, here). You may also peruse some of Senechal’s own perspectives on education, as a high school philosophy teacher, on her blog. We hope that some of Senechal’s students will consider submitting their essays to the upcoming PLATO 2013-2014 High School Essay Contest, for which it seems they are well suited to compete.

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Philosophy for Children: A reflective approach to human rights education

Article by Michelle Sowey | Published July 31, 2012, by Human Rights in Australia

Girl blowing on dandelion

Image courtesy of Erin McGuire: http://www.flickr.com/photos/erinmcguire/

By Michelle Sowey. This article is part of Human Rights of Australia’s July focus on the rights of children and youth. Read our Editorial for more on this theme.

Some years ago, in a paper on human rights education, Jim Ife observed:

The idea of human rights is far from non-problematic; it is highly contested, and so human rights education needs to incorporate the complexity and the controversy.

When educating children, how can we do justice to the complex and contested nature of human rights?

Human rights education has (at least) two distinct goals: to help children develop a critical understanding of human rights and responsibilities; and to foster the attitudes, behaviours and skills that children need to apply this understanding in everyday life.

I would like to suggest a particular model of inquiry-based learning that fulfils both goals, without overlooking the complexity and contestability of human rights. That model is known as Philosophy for Children.

Not only are children capable of grappling with such questions, but quite often they innocently articulate philosophical theories from the history of philosophy.

If the bearing of philosophy on human rights is not obvious, consider the following.

  • Investigating the justification, universality and objectivity of rights is a deeply philosophical exercise.
  • At the heart of human rights lie concepts that are essentially philosophical, whether social and political in flavour (such as freedom, justice, fairness and responsibility) or moral and humanistic (such as care, understanding, dignity, and identity).
  • The nature of human rights is itself philosophically complex. Human rights are inalienable, and yet they derive from negotiated decisions among international stakeholders. Implicitly or explicitly, lawmakers must grapple with challenging philosophical questions that underlie decisions on human rights issues.

When the techniques of philosophical inquiry are made properly accessible, even young children are able to share in the processes of deliberation, negotiation and decision-making on human rights issues.

As an approach to human rights education, the appeal of Philosophy for Children is twofold. Firstly, it offers a proven method for engaging children in the investigation of central questions concerning rights and values. It helps children develop a critical understanding of concepts as well as the capacity to make reasoned, ethical and informed decisions about human rights issues. Secondly, Philosophy for Children enables children to participate as responsible citizens in a democratic community. It cultivates the attitudes, behaviours and skills they need in order to express their views publicly, listen openly to other views, and resolve disagreements in a reasonable way.

The Philosophy for Children approach

It is often remarked that children are naturally disposed to philosophical wonder. As Ken Taylor says:

Young people are in the business of trying to figure out who and what they are.  Philosophy is devoted to answering just the sorts of questions that will grip any reflective human engaged in such a process:  “Who am I?”  “What’s right, and what’s wrong?”  “What things are worthy of my deepest allegiances and affections?”  “What is my place in the social world?”

For over 30 years, practitioners of Philosophy for Children around the world have harnessed children’s curiosity about philosophical questions such as these, building on the work of founder Matthew Lipman, who himself was greatly influenced by John Dewey. Strong empirical evidence of the cognitive and social benefits of Philosophy for Children comes from various studies and meta-analyses (see Millett and Tapper for a summary).

This facilitator’s neutrality ensures that children may freely investigate sensitive ethical or political questions without risking indoctrination.

In Australia, Philosophy for Children promotes critical and creative thinking among students in primary and secondary schools and, less commonly, in extra-curricular contexts. Trained facilitators help groups of children to wrestle with philosophical problems and arrive at considered judgements on the basis of thoughtful dialogue and critical reflection. Rather than teaching children the philosophical canon in a didactic way, facilitators lead groups of children in semi-structured dialogue or “collaborative inquiry” that encourages children to explore the philosophical dimensions of their own experience.

To begin, a narrative is often read aloud and used as a stimulus for inquiry. The narrative may be selected from classic or contemporary children’s literature, or purpose-written for philosophical dialogue. Either way, it is chosen for its philosophical interest, for its resonance with children’s experience, and for its capacity to fire their imaginations. Sophisticated picture books (such as Morrison and Morrison’s The Big Box, Cali and Bloch’s The Enemy, Trottier and Arsenault’s Migrant) offer rich stimuli for philosophical dialogues about human rights.

After the reading, the facilitator asks children to raise questions about any aspects of the narrative that they find philosophically puzzling. Then in response to one another’s questions, the children propose possible answers, supported by reasons. The facilitator solicits multiple responses and helps children to test various answers against criteria for reasonableness.

It teaches children how to negotiate meanings and how to disagree with one another, sometimes profoundly, without resorting to personal attacks.

Tensions between conflicting beliefs and values make for particularly rich dialogues. Is it okay to lie in order to save someone from being bullied or oppressed? Is environmental pollution an acceptable consequence of improving living standards among the poor? What is the difference between secrecy and privacy, and under what circumstances should each be defended?

Not only are children capable of grappling with such questions, but quite often they innocently articulate philosophical theories from the history of philosophy. Recounting an example of this, academic philosopher Thomas Wartenberg recalls a third-grade class inquiry into the question of why stealing is wrong:

As expected, students began with a variety of answers, including one forceful young man who said that the reason that stealing was wrong was that you got punished for doing it. Suddenly, a young girl … excitedly raised her hand. “No”, she said, “that’s not right. Stealing isn’t wrong because you get punished. You get punished because it’s wrong.” As I recognized Plato’s argument from the Euthyphro, I was stunned.

I include the transcript below as a detailed illustration of how a philosophical inquiry might proceed with a group of seven- and eight-year-olds. This passage is excerpted from a dialogue in Sutcliffe and Williams concerning where the fault lies in instances of bad behaviour. (Grammatical errors in the transcript have been corrected for readability.)

Teacher: Do people behave badly sometimes, do you think?

All: Yes.

Teacher: So what is it that drives people to behave badly?

Alex: Other people … They can make you want to do something naughty. They can tell you to do something naughty.

Teacher: How do these people tell people to be naughty?

Alex: Well Nicholas once drove – drove Adam to do something naughty – sort of spying on me.

Teacher: So whose fault would that be, do you think?

All:  Nicholas’.

Teacher: Is it the fault of the person who tells the person to be naughty? Or is it the fault of the person themselves?

Peter: It’s the person that tells them.

Teacher: Earlier on Peter you were talking about, though, that it’s up to the person themselves to be good or bad, didn’t you? So is it up to that person to listen to someone else telling them to be naughty?

Helen: They should decide themselves … The person that’s going to do it.

Teacher: Would you all agree with that?

Gordon: Yeh.

Teacher: Would you agree with that or would you disagree with that? Does the fault lie in the person that tells someone to be naughty or does the fault lie with the person that actually carries out the action?

Alex: Both.

Teacher: Who’s most at fault, the person who does it or the person who tells them?

Emma: Both.

Helen: Both.

Teacher: Alex?

Alex: I think it’s both because the person (the person who’s being told) shouldn’t do it – they don’t have to.

Teacher: Ahh, so they’re thinking as well. They’re making a choice in their mind.

Alex: Umm. The person who tells them, they want to know the information but they don’t want to get told off – they want the other person to – the person that they ask – so they decide to use them so they won’t get told off themselves.

Emma: That’s not always true though.

Alex: They use them for a weapon.

Teacher: So that’s an interesting idea; who would like to follow on from what Alex says? … Why isn’t that always true?

Emma: I saw on a programme that one person died because another person told him to do glue-sniffing and the other person died.

Teacher: OK. So who was at fault there do you think?

Emma: Both.

Teacher: Right, that’s making a connection isn’t it? That’s making a connection from what we’ve talked about here to something that’s really happened.

Understanding human rights concepts and making reasoned judgements

Mature deliberation is a vital skill, not least in the high-stakes field of human rights where we need to assess the human rights impact of particular policies and practices. Today, children and young people are themselves called on to stand up for human rights in their schools and communities. As students and as citizens, they need to develop the capacity to make independent, reasoned judgements about human rights issues and other topical issues of pressing concern.

The Australian Human Rights Commission recommends that human rights education be discursive, that is, “based on discussion, exchanging ideas and values [and] understanding human communication”. Philosophy for Children goes further: beyond supporting an exchange of ideas and values, it teaches children a range of high-level thinking strategies they can use to test these ideas and values.

Children become familiar with key concepts in human rights and learn how to clarify these concepts, provide justification for their beliefs, make distinctions and uncover assumptions. They learn to imagine the implications of hypothetical scenarios, consider alternative interpretations, and produce examples and counter-examples. In the course of dialogue and subsequent reflection, children come to understand that certain values – such as logical consistency and relevance of reasons – are crucial to the fair-minded assessment of arguments.

It is a hallmark of Philosophy for Children that the facilitator remains neutral and avoids disclosing his or her personal opinions while drawing forth discussion among the children. This neutrality ensures that children may freely investigate sensitive ethical or political questions without risking indoctrination.

… children are greatly excited by the invitation to think for themselves, articulate their views, engage with one another’s ideas and modify their beliefs on the basis of reason and evidence.

Ground rules for philosophical inquiry demand that all participants be treated with respect. The expression of diverse opinions is welcomed and all views are taken seriously. However, not all views are endorsed as equally valid. While philosophical questions generally have no clear “right answer”, there are various ways of being wrong. Learning to recognise logical and interpretative mistakes is a powerful tool for critically evaluating beliefs and deciding when a change of mind is warranted.

In exploring contested issues through reasoned dialogue, children develop habits of constructive scepticism, recognising that no claim deserves to be unquestioningly accepted. Children learn to assess suitability of criteria, weight of evidence, reliability of sources and robustness of ideas in the face of criticism. These considerations enable children to draw tentative conclusions in the face of doubt, so they can act decisively in the world.

Towards democratic citizenship

Groups of children engaged in sustained philosophical dialogue develop a community of inquiry­: a pluralistic and democratic community built on principles of participation, deliberation, mutual respect and tolerance. As it develops, the community becomes increasingly self-governing, such that the facilitator intervenes less frequently and the children become more competent at regulating the dialogue themselves.

Participating in a community of inquiry affords children a meaningful way to exercise their rights to freedom of thought and expression as well as their right to develop their individual judgement and sense of moral and social responsibility (as set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, respectively).

Additionally, the community of inquiry prepares children for active citizenship in multiple ways. It offers them opportunities to experience genuine civic participation, on a small scale, within their classroom or peer group. It cultivates the skills and dispositions they need to express their views publicly, and to act responsibly and assertively in the wider world. It teaches children how to negotiate meanings and how to disagree with one another, sometimes profoundly, without resorting to personal attacks. It empowers children to reflect critically on proposed solutions to real social problems. And it prepares them to be meaningfully involved – even while still very young – in democratic decision-making, community participation, consultation and self-advocacy.

Collaborating for human rights education

Philosophical inquiry is a powerful tool for illuminating human rights concepts, bringing their meaning and relevance into sharper focus. Through Philosophy for Children, educators can convey the significance and complexity of human rights while avoiding both dogmatic instruction and traditional adversarial debate.

Collaborative philosophical inquiry provides a means for children to participate actively in a reflective community. In my experience, children are greatly excited by the invitation to think for themselves, articulate their views, engage with one another’s ideas and modify their beliefs on the basis of reason and evidence.

Eventually, each child develops a habit of “silent dialogue”, enabling them to test their own ideas independently. As one child put it: “Philosophy is like having a conversation with a voice in my head.” It is my hope that by introducing human rights education through philosophical inquiry, that inner voice will become more informed, more imaginative and more compassionate.

Michelle Sowey is a researcher and practitioner of Philosophy for Children. She directs The Philosophy Club which offers extra-curricular Philosophy workshops for children. She also works with universities, schools and community partners to develop Philosophy for Children initiatives. Michelle has been involved in both the Victorian Association for Philosophy in Schools and the Federation of Australasian Philosophy in Schools Associations.

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Department of Justice acknowledges benefits of prison education

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Justice and Education Departments Announce New Research Showing Prison Education Reduces Recidivism, Saves Money, Improves Employment

Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced research findings showing that, on average, inmates who participated in correctional education programs had 43 percent lower odds of returning to prison than inmates who did not.  Each year approximately 700,000 individuals leave federal and state prisons; about half of them will be reincarcerated within three years.  The research, funded by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, was released today by the RAND Corporation.

“These findings reinforce the need to become smarter on crime by expanding proven strategies for keeping our communities safe, and ensuring that those who have paid their debts to society have the chance to become productive citizens,” said Attorney General Holder.  “We have an opportunity and an obligation to use smart methods – and advance innovative new programs – that can improve public safety while reducing costs.  As it stands, too many individuals and communities are harmed, rather than helped, by a criminal justice system that does not serve the American people as well as it should.  This important research is part of our broader effort to change that.”

The findings, from the largest-ever analysis of correctional educational studies, indicate that prison education programs are cost effective.  According to the research, a one dollar investment in prison education translates into reducing incarceration costs by four to five dollars during the first three years after release, when those leaving prison are most likely to return.

“Correctional education programs provide incarcerated individuals with the skills and knowledge essential to their futures,” said Secretary of Education Duncan.  “Investing in these education programs helps released prisoners get back on their feet—and stay on their feet—when they return to communities across the country.”

With funding from The Second Chance Act (P.L. 110-199) of 2007, the RAND Corporation’s analysis of correctional education research found that employment after release was 13 percent higher among prisoners who participated in either academic or vocational education programs than among those who did not.  Those who participated in vocational training were 28 percent more likely to be employed after release from prison than those who did not receive such training.

The report is a collaborative effort of the Departments of Justice and Education, two of 20 federal agencies that make up the federal interagency Reentry Council.  The Reentry Council’s members are working to make communities safer by reducing recidivism and victimization; assisting those who return from prison and jail in becoming contributing members of their communities; and saving taxpayer dollars by lowering the direct and collateral costs of incarceration.  Attorney General Holder chairs the Reentry Council which he established in January 2011.

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TED blog: “Why we should teach philosophy to kids”

Here

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Philosophy in secondary schools

“It’s time to start teaching philosophy as a formal subject in our secondary schools”: an argument

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“Why does France insist school pupils master philosophy?”

BBC reports

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Equality of Opportunity Debate

An interesting debate arose in this class from two participants sitting on opposite sides of the room.  The primary clash of their debate involved the power of self-initiative vs. the reality of systemic injustice.  The debate became heated and personal, but remained respectful and was supported throughout by reasons.  At the end of the debate, one of the participants turned to me and asked with genuine curiosity: "What the fuck is this class anyway, a 'what if' class?"  Running with this suggestion, a graduate student wrote into the next week's lesson plan: "Many of the practical changes that we call progress began with a group of people sitting around and wondering "what if…" (e.g., end of slavery, women's voting rights, etc.) There are a lot more "what ifs…" to consider that can lead to progress and change."  We hope it's a "what if" class in this sense.

An interesting debate arose in this class from two participants sitting on opposite sides of the room. The primary clash of their debate involved the power of self-initiative vs. the reality of systemic injustice. The debate became heated and personal, but remained respectful and was supported throughout by reasons. At the end of the debate, one of the participants turned to me and asked with genuine curiosity: “What the fuck is this class anyway, a ‘what if’ class?” Running with this suggestion, a graduate student wrote into the next week’s lesson plan: “Many of the practical changes that we call progress began with a group of people sitting around and wondering “what if…” (e.g., end of slavery, women’s voting rights, etc.) There are a lot more “what ifs…” to consider that can lead to progress and change.” We hope it’s a “what if” class in this sense! 

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Equality with Dzhokhar?

Debriefing and grieving the Boston bombing, in this class, we determined the extent to which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev--an obvious criminal-- deserves equality before the law, equality of consideration, and equality of opportunity.  In terms of Dzhokhar's motive, one participant judged:  "He probably did it because of an issue with consideration."

Debriefing and grieving the Boston bombing, in this class, we determined the extent to which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev–an obvious criminal– deserves equality before the law, equality of consideration, and equality of opportunity. In terms of Dzhokhar’s motive, one participant judged: “He probably did it because of an issue with consideration.”

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