Education to Empower

We’re working on changes to the site.  These will include a new look, class materials for teachers, and eventually a forum for teachers and philosophers to connect and discuss the practical day to day aspect of teaching children philosophy.  We are also considering an organizational tool for interns, volunteers and employees to keep track of tasks and events.

What do you think we should change about or add to the site, and why?  Comments welcome!

(Note that all materials and features will be available for free.)

I had the wonderful opportunity to work with and then interview teachers and students in California and Washington DC.  Here are some highlights from those interviews.  I invite you to imagine your students, your own children or kids in your community having the opportunity to study philosophy.  See their potential, and  imagine what they can do.

From September 10th – the 13th I’m heading to Memphis, TN for a conference on Philosophy for Children put on by the University’s Philosophical Horizons program:

Sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and made possible through support from the Tennessee Board of Regents, the Squire Family Foundation, and the Marcus Orr Center for the Humanities, Keeping the Child in Mind: A Conference on the Philosophy of Children will be held on September 11-12, 2009. Gareth Matthews, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts and author of Philosophy and the Young Child (1980), Dialogues with Children (1984), and The Philosophy of Childhood (1994), will be the keynote speaker. Local teachers and administrators, as well as the general public, are invited to attend. Further information about the conference is available here.

If you can make it out, it should be an excellent time.  I’ll be hanging around an additional day to make connections and invite participants to discuss the strategy of a nationwide philosophy for children program.