High School Students

Online Philosophy Classes

General Information

PLATO is offering online philosophy classes for high school students each quarter in the 2024-25 school year.

Class Topics: 
Fall 2024: Existentialism and Free Will
Winter 2025: The Music We Love and Why 
Spring 2025: We Live in A Society

Each class will meet weekly for six weeks on Zoom. We welcome students from around the world.

At the end of the class, students who have completed the class will be provided with Certificates of Achievement.

Instructor: Dr. Jordan Sherry-Wagner will be teaching all of the 2024-25 online high school classes. Jordan is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington who became involved in K-12 philosophy education as a Graduate Student Fellow with the Center for Philosophy for Children (now PLATO) from 2017-2019, during which he earned a Certificate of Mastery. Jordan has led philosophy sessions in a wide range of educational contexts.

Class Descriptions

Fall 2024: Existentialism and Free Will
Wednesdays – October 9, 16, 23 30, and November 6 and 13
All classes 4:30-5:45 pm Pacific Time

Do we have free will? How do we know? What is the meaning of life? How should I live it? Questions about existence and the personal agency we have (or do not have) in shaping our lives have puzzled generation after generation. In this class, students will consider several such existential questions and make sense of what it means for them as they navigate this world.

 

Winter 2025: The Music We Love and Why
Wednesdays – January 22 and 29 and February 5, 12, 26 and March 5 (no class February 19)
All classes 4:30-5:45pm Pacific Time

Music is a part of most people’s lives. The teen years, in particular, are marked by a strong attachment to music both as an art form and as a means of constructing one’s identity. Students will talk together about what music is, what we love about it, how what we listen to does and does not provide information about us to others, and what makes some music beautiful and other music not-so-beautiful.

 

Spring 2025: We Live in A Society
Wednesdays – April 16, 23, 30 and May 7, 14, and 21
All classes 4:30-5:45pm Pacific Time

Humans live in community with one another, relying on each other in various ways and making decisions as individuals that impact others. What kinds of values seem fairly universal for humans? What values are more individualized? How do we best approach disagreements about what values should guide our social arrangements? Students will explore these questions and more together, giving priority to the questions and themes on their minds.

Class Structure

These classes will be interactive and collaborative, requiring attention and participation of all students. Students should have their cameras on during class, as visual presence both enhances a sense of community and increases accessibility for all participants.

Barring unforeseen circumstances and illness, we expect students to attend all six sessions in the series. Consistent attendance is important for building community and deepening our discussions over the weeks we meet.

Philosophical conversations involve topics about which reasonable people can disagree. All participants are expected to arrive prepared to listen carefully, thoughtfully engage with others’ ideas, and bravely share their own thoughts.

Session facilitators will ensure we maintain a respectful and intellectually safe community of inquiry. Students will experience the joys of thinking together about the ethical and other philosophical questions on our minds.

Registration & Payment

The cost for a six-week class is $100 for non-members, or $75 for PLATO members (become a member here).

Please use the form to the right (or below on mobile) to register for the fall, winter, and/or spring classes.

Please register and make payment by the following deadlines:

Fall Class: Registration closed
Winter Class: January 17, 2025
Spring Class: April 11, 2025

PLEASE NOTE: Registration is not complete until payment is made. No refunds will be given after the registration deadline.

PLATO offers generous financial assistance for students. If you require a full or partial scholarship, please send an email to info@plato-philosophy.org before you register and indicate your reason(s) for the request and the extent of financial assistance you need.

Questions? Email info@plato-philosophy.org.


National High School Programs

General Programs

PLATO is committed to fostering the growth of philosophy in high schools around the US, including supporting:

  • High school philosophy teachers interested in visiting other classrooms to lead philosophy sessions

  • High school philosophy clubs, in-person or virtual

  • Annual Philosophy Days

  • Student-organized philosophy conferences

  • Virtual speakers for high school classes on philosophy topics that align with classroom units

  • Virtual speakers for philosophy clubs

  • And other initiatives designed to bring more philosophy and ethics programs into high schools.

Online Ethics Roundtables. This year we are piloting drop-in roundtables, each of which will involve discussion of one of the National High School Ethics Bowl cases. For more information, visit the Ethics Roundtables page.

We are also developing a model for bringing virtual philosophy instructors into high school classrooms, with the support of the classroom teacher. Under this model, PLATO philosophy instructors, appearing virtually, lead one or more sessions on ethics or philosophical questions that arise in the high school curriculum. These sessions are structured to reveal deep questions about the discipline and to further engage students with the material. No experience with philosophy required.

For example, sessions might focus on:

  • The nature of knowledge
  • Justice and fairness
  • The meaning of infinity
  • Climate Justice
  • The relationship between facts and values
  • The aims of science
  • Animal ethics
  • The nature of law
  • and any other topic that aligns with a classroom unit.
 

Philosophers In Residence

In 2023, PLATO’s Philosophers-in-Residence Program, which has been in Seattle elementary schools for more than a decade, expanded to high schools, thanks to a grant from the Whiting Foundation.

Students in three high schools — Medford High School (Greater Boston area), Academy at Palumbo (Philadelphia), and Rainier Beach High School (Seattle) — now enjoy regular philosophy sessions in their classrooms. The philosophers in residence in these schools also help design new lesson plans, run professional learning community workshops for teachers, mentor college students, lead parent programs, and be available for consultations with both students and teachers.

We are continuing to develop this program in other schools and locations in the US. In 2024-2025, thanks to continued funding from the Whiting Foundation, the program will be in 6 high schools in four states — Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington — and we plan further expansion over the next several years.

If you are interested in starting a program or would like further information, contact us at info@plato-philosophy.org. 

Ethics Case Writing Project

PLATO’s online, open-access ethics case library contains case studies written by middle school and high school students. The cases, about ethical dilemmas relevant to young students, can be used in classrooms and other ethics forms.

Any high school student from the US and around the world can help build the library by submitting a case. 

Accepted cases are published on PLATO’s website, with credit to the writers. Writers of accepted cases will also receive a one-year PLATO membership.

All published cases become the property of PLATO.

For more information, see the case writing project page.

Contact

For more information, contact us at info@plato-philosophy.org

Philosophy Course Syllabi

Course Syllabi

The following are philosophy course syllabi from high school teachers around the country. We hope these resources are helpful to teachers interested in developing high school philosophy courses.
 

AP Language and Composition
Teacher: Scott MacLeod
Location: San Marin High School, Novato, California

Environmental Ethics
Teacher: Alejandro Marx
Location: High School for Environmental Studies, New York, New York

Ethics of Embodiment
Teacher: Stephen Miller
Location: Oakwood Friends School, Poughkeepsie, New York

Existentialism
Teacher: Stephen Miller
Location: Oakwood Friends School, Poughkeepsie, New York

Introduction to Moral Philsophy Across the Disciplines
Teacher: Stephen Miller
Location: Oakwood Friends School, Poughkeepsie, New York

Introduction to Philosophy
Teacher: Steven Goldberg
Location: Oak Park River Forest High School, Oak Park, Illinois

Introduction to Philosophy
Teacher: Dr. Christopher Buckels
Location: Junípero Serra High School, San Mateo, CA

Literature and Philosophy
Teacher: Laurie Grady
Location: Haverford Senior High School, Haverton, Pennsylvania

Nature of Knowledge
Teacher: Allison Cohen
Location: Langley High School, Langley, Virginia

Philosophy Honors
Teacher: Christopher Freiler (with the help of Steven Goldberg)
Location: Hinsdale Central High School, Hinsdale, Illinois

Philsophy of Religion
Teacher: Stephen Miller
Location: Oakwood Friends School, Poughkeepsie, New York

Books and Other Resources For Students

Books

Below are some book recommendations for high school students interested in philosophy.

The Universe and Dr. Einstein, by Lincoln Barnett

Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, by George Berkeley

Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, by Sissela Bok

The Stranger, by Albert Camus

Meditations on First Philosophy, by Descartes

Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Sophie’s World, by Jostein Gaarder
The Mind’s I, composed and arranged by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett

Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death, by Soren Kierkegaard

Philosophical Fragments, by Soren Kierkegaard
A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold

What Does It All Mean?, by Thomas Nagel

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
The Examined Life, by Robert Nozick

Sex and Social Justice, by Martha Nussbaum
Very Short Introduction Series by Oxford University Press
A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, by John Perry

The Republic, by Plato

A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls

Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? Michael Sandel
Nausea, by John-Paul Sartre

No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau
Meaning in Life and Why It Matters by Susan Wolf

Online Sites

Some Recommended Online Sites 

Wi-Phi: short, animated videos on a variety of philosophical topics

Philosophy Talk: philosophy radio program

Puzzle Baron’s Logic Puzzles: “the world’s largest website devoted to logic puzzles”

Hi-Phi Nation: podcast about philosophy that “turns stories into ideas”