Teach Different: Philosophy and Emotional Health
Dan has taught high school government and philosophy in Chicago for thirty years and serves on PLATO’s Academic Advisory Board.
In 2017, my twin brother Steve and I co-founded Teach Different, a professional development group that helps teachers, students and families master the art and science of philosophical conversations. Teach Different is an institutional partner of PLATO and shares its mission to promote inquiry, critical thinking and, well, the many pleasures that philosophy offers to us all.
Teach Different grew out of a traumatic encounter between Steve — a former college philosophy instructor and veteran high school history teacher — and Jarvis, one of his students in an underserved high school on Chicago’s west side. Jarvis was uniquely and perpetually disruptive. One day during class, at wits end, Steve asked Jarvis to come out into the hall. He asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jarvis blurted out, “It’s my dad’s birthday. They killed him when I was in the front seat.”
Silence… More silence…Steve felt paralyzed, mute. What could he say? No wonder Jarvis was detached, unavailable, and unable to control himself in class – he’d witnessed his father’s murder, and he was now reliving the trauma on his birthday.
For Steve, it was one of the most wrenching moments teachers undergo – when you realize that you really don’t know what your students are going through once the school day ends — and that unless you take the time to really get to know and care about them, you will lose them for the entire year.
That night, Steve decided to scrap the lesson he’d planned for the next day. Instead, he wrote a quote from Confucius on the board: “If you want to embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” His students, who were from some of the roughest, most violence-riddled neighborhoods in Chicago, immediately launched themselves into a philosophical conversation about the perils and possibilities of revenge. For 45 minutes, they thought deeply together and connected emotionally – inspired by a short philosophical quotation.
Thrilled by this success, Steve pestered me to try the idea he had stumbled upon. I finally agreed. For my AP government class, I paired the primary source reading — The Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Dr. MLK Jr. — with an Albert Einstein quotation on authority: “Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.” Sure enough, my college-bound students, many of whom came from more economically privileged, backgrounds, engaged in a deep philosophical conversation, relating their own stories of when and why they had disobeyed authority. It was an academically rich and emotionally rewarding experience.
That’s when together, Steve and I realized that there was a need for Teach Different.
Over time, we formalized the idea of using quotes to create a structured yet flexible framework that any teacher could learn and incorporate into their lessons. This conversation method combines a thought-provoking quote, a claim, a counterclaim, and an essential question that inspires critical thinking, inquiry, and self-reflection. To hear how this works in real time, listen to our podcast with Dr. Jana Mohr Lone, PLATO’s Executive Director, during which we model the conversation method using Seneca’s quote: “We suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
Here is a graphical representation of the method. The claim and counterclaim creates the tension in the conversation, which generates the organic questions.
Since 2018, Steve and I have trained over 2,500 teachers. We have also realized that benefit of using the approach goes beyond stoking enhanced critical thinking and inquiry: its deeper value proved to be emotional. When kids engage in philosophical conversations, they don’t merely think more deeply; they also connect emotionally with themselves and each other. They care about each other. They feel as if they belong. Neuroscience confirms these observations. Meaningful conversation releases brain chemicals — oxytocin and dopamine – that foster empathy and strengthen social bonds. Our brains actually change and become stronger and healthier by doing philosophy. In turn, classrooms are transformed. What a gift!
Recognizing these deeper mental health benefits, Steve and I reached out to a state senator who encouraged us to draft a grant proposal for teacher training using our method. Good news! This summer we were awarded a state appropriation from the Illinois Department of Human Services to provide conversation training to educators across the state. Teachers in the project receive private coaching and access to an online community where they share their conversation experiences and interact in online workshops. The ultimate goals are twofold: to enhance student emotional and mental health, and to cultivate a dynamic corps of teachers who implement the method in their classrooms and mentor others in future projects.
This is just the beginning. Teach Different has emerging partnerships with the National Council for the Social Studies, the Illinois Institute of Independent Colleges and Universities, and other organizations across the country with similar missions. The master plan is to use the Illinois grant as a springboard to work with mission-driven partners to pursue much larger grants on state and federal levels.
I’m sharing this exciting story because as philosophers, we are often outsiders in K-12 classrooms, fighting for relevance, exhausting ourselves trying to justify the value of what we provide and to convince others that philosophy has the power to change hearts and minds. We struggle to be afforded the natural credibility and respect we deserve. The success of Teach Different is evidence that we all have a unique opportunity—perhaps a responsibility—to be out front arguing for the transformative power of philosophical conversations. Even as our political discourse breaks down and we deal with lingering Covid setbacks, philosophy can help heal us.
If you have any questions or are looking for more information about Teach Different, reach out to me directly at dan@teachdifferent.com
PLATO members: you already receive complimentary access to the Teach Different online community. Join the community to find quotes and ideas you can use in your classrooms.
Thanks to PLATO for its steadfast commitment to bring us together to share the joy and value of philosophy with all.
