Workshop: “Philosophizing with High School Students”

The UGA Department of Philosophy and the UGA Office of Service-Learning are pleased to host a workshop by Tom Wartenberg, a national expert in teaching philosophy to young children. This workshop, "Philosophizing with High School Students" will demonstrate techniques Dr. Wartenberg uses to get high school children to have philosophy discussions.

Workshop Agenda: 

1. A general introduction to pre-college philosophy

2. An explanation of the “rules” we use for discussing philosophy with students

3. A model discussion using a YouTube clip from The Good Place showing the trolley problem

4. Show another clip or art work and have attendees break up into small groups to create a “lesson plan” for teaching it

5. Have the groups show the others what they have done

6. Summing up

Participants will gain an understanding of the methods used when working with high school children.

Dr. Wartenberg was the winner of the 2011 APA/PDC Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Philosophy Programs and the 2013 Merritt Prize for Distinguished Service to the Philosophy of Education. He's the author of Big Ideas for Little Kids: Teaching Philosophy through Children's Literature (Rowman and Littlefield).  A PBS documentary about his work is available here - https://video.wgby.org/video/wgby-documentaries-big-ideas-little-kids/

More information can be found at his website: https://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/

Dr. Wartenberg will also be giving a public lecture, "Doing Philosophy with Frog and Toad” on Thursday, February 13 from 3:30-5:00 PM in 115 Peabody Hall 115.