Since its founding, the Center has run dozens of workshops in Seattle and around the country for teachers, parents, and other adults interested in philosophical inquiry with young people. Center staff also travel to other areas of the region and country to provide intensive training for schools, which might include, for example, a week of demonstration philosophy classes, afterschool workshops with teachers, programs for parents, and follow-up support.

Our annual three-day workshop on Philosophy in Schools takes place each June at the University of Washington. The 2021 workshop will be online. Clock hours are available for teachers. 

The 2021 workshop will be held virtually from Monday—Wednesday, June 28—30. There will be four sessions each of the three days. The preliminary schedule is 10 am-12:15 pm and 1:30-3:45 pm each day.

The workshop is open to teachers and others interested in exploring how introducing philosophy can enrich student learning. Participants learn about the history and methods of pre-college philosophy, and engage in philosophical discussions on topics such as: “What can we know? What makes something right or wrong? Are we free? What is a mind? How do we define happiness?”

The registration fee for the workshop is $200 for general registration, $150 for preschool through high school classroom teachers, and $100 for graduate and undergraduate students.

Space is limited. Once we have 16 participants, registration will be closed.
PLEASE NOTE: As of April 12, 2021, our 2021 workshop is full. If you are interested in being on the waitlist, please complete the registration form but do not make payment. We will notify you if a space opens up for the workshop.
THANK YOU!

Questions? Please contact Jana Mohr Lone at mohrlone@uw.edu


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Register Online 

Registration Form & Payment Options
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Step 1) Please complete the registration form below first!

And, after submitting your registration, make payment as instructed below (scroll down). Thanks!

Registration Form

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Step 2) PayPal or Check – You May Submit Payment Either Way.
REMINDER: Do not make payment unless you have been informed that you have been moved off the workshop waitlist.

Please note, your registration is not complete until we receive your registration fee. Thank you for registering.

PayPal Payments
This is our preferred method of taking payments. It does not require a PayPal account (though you certainly can use yours) and you can securely use a debit or credit card to make your payment.

Registration

Check Payment
Please indicate the check # in the registration form and then send your check, made out to Center for Philosophy for Children, to:

University of Washington
Center for Philosophy for Children
Department of Philosophy
Box 353350
Seattle, WA 98195-3350
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Sample Workshop Format


This workshop is an intensive introduction to methods for bringing philosophy into pre-college classrooms. Philosophy sessions use children’s books and various activities to inspire discussions that emerge from the children’s own questions, based on the understanding that questioning is central to independent thinking. The workshop will focus on ways in which to establish philosophical “communities of inquiry” in classrooms, and will introduce a conception of what constitutes a philosophical discussion, basic reasoning and logic tools, and a general introduction to the discipline of philosophy, including ethics, epistemology, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and logic.

The workshop emphasizes learning by doing. We will form our own community of inquiry, and will spend most of each day discussing philosophical questions such as: When do we know something? What is justice? What is the self? What is friendship?

 

Sample Workshop Schedule


Day 1

9:00am – 9:30am Coffee/Tea and Pastries + Introduction
9:30am – 10:15am Community of Philosophical Inquiry
10:30am – 11:15am Are you a philosopher? Games and activities
11:30am – 12:15pm Personal Identity – “Double Trouble” and Ship of Theseus
12:15pm – 12:45pm LUNCH (provided)
12:45pm – 1:30pm Middle/High School Epistemology: Plato’s Cave
Elementary School – Philosophy of Mind “Cookies” in Frog and Toad Together
1:45pm – 2:30pm Middle/High School – Ethics: The Bluest Eye
Elementary – Ethics: Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
2:45pm – 3:30pm Social inequalities/race and racism: Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles

Day 2

9:00am – 9:30am Coffee/Tea and Pastries
9:30am – 10:15am Middle/High School – Metaphysics: A Wrinkle in Time
Elementary – Metaphysics: Morris the Moose
10:30am – 11:15am Middle/High School Metaphisics & ethics: Nature of happiness
Elementary – Metaphysics & epistemology: The Bear That Wasn’t
11:30am – 12:15pm Gender: The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch
12:15pm – 12:45pm LUNCH (provided)
12:45pm – 1:30pm Refugee politics: The Color of Home by Mary Hoffman
1:45pm – 2:30pm Thinking about animals: an activity
2:30pm – 3:00pm Final questions and concluding remarks