By Jana Mohr Lone During the past couple of years, I have organized ethics bowls with 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students, both as classrooms units and as larger whole grade events. Ethics Bowls are designed to promote thoughtful, civil dialogue about difficult questions. Students learn ethical reasoning and good listening skills, and they are … Ethics Bowls with Elementary and Middle School Students
Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO) announced its 2023 grant awards this week to fund a wide array of programs for all ages on diverse topics. PLATO first developed its grants program in 2016 with the goal of funding innovative ethics and philosophy programs around the country for students of all ages and backgrounds. In the past, PLATO … <strong>Grants Announced for Philosophy Programs Around the US</strong>
This week I introduced philosopher Robert Nozick’s 1971 Experience Machine thought experiment in a fourth-grade class. The experiment asks us to imagine that there is an “Experience Machine” that can give us any experience we desire. If you are hooked up to the machine, your brain would be stimulated so that you would think and feel that you were … Exploring Robert Nozick’s “Experience Machine” with Fourth Grade Students
This month the Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO) is expanding its elementary school philosophers-in-residence program to three high schools, in Boston, Philadelphia, and Seattle. This expansion is possible thanks to a $60,000 grant from The Whiting Foundation. PLATO is a growing national organization that nurtures young people’s curiosity, critical thinking, and desire to explore big questions through philosophy and ethics … Philosophy comes to high schools around the US
We’ve reached the end of the first year of our expanded organization (here is a history), a year that has been exciting and hectic and demanding. I have paused this past couple of weeks to spend time thinking about the year’s achievements and challenges, and what lies ahead. Over the 25 years of its existence, the … Reflections After the First Year of PLATO’s Merger
By Nina Kibria, a senior high school student at Seattle Academy Three years ago, my 9th-grade history teacher suggested I join my school’s Ethics Club. At first, I hesitated. I liked thinking critically about social issues and discussing them with my peers, but I feared ethics would be a repeat of my experience with middle … An Intergenerational Ethics Conversation
Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization (PLATO) is now accepting grant applications for innovative philosophy and ethics programs across the United States. PLATO grants have funded programs for every age, from kindergarten to senior citizens, in red, blue, and purple states all over America. They include community nature walks in Montana, a summer philosophy camp in Kentucky, elementary school philosophy … PLATO is now accepting grant applications
Guest Blog Post from Wendy TurgeonEditor-in-Chief of PLATO’s Journal Questions: Philosophy for Young People Recently I published Philosophical Adventures with Fairy Tales (2021), which introduced ways to do philosophy with 13 European tales, mostly familiar, from the Grimms Brothers collection. Building on that work, I am going to be editing a new collection that will examine fairy … Philosophical Themes in Fairy Tales
What is the moral significance of naming and renaming public buildings? Does wealth allow people to make more ethical choices? Is it ever appropriate for a school to implement policies that directly contradict parents’ values and preferences? PLATO is joining the University of Washington Retirement Association (UWRA) for our first event to bring together UWRA … Intergenerational Ethics Event
I finished my last classes in the schools for the summer earlier this month, and was presented with a beautiful booklet in which some of the children wrote to me about how they felt and thought about philosophy this year. It was particularly interesting to me that so many students wrote about the impact of … “I Am Actually Somebody”
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.
Connect With Us!