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APA Committee onPre-College Instruction in Philosophy2000 ReportVolume 74, Number 5 May 2001 Reports of APA Committees -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Committee on Pre-College Instruction in Philosophy Betsy Newell Decyk, Chair Once again the APA Committee on Pre-College Instruction In Philosophy had a very active year. It began at the Eastern Division meeting with a session on Children’s Rights. The speakers for this session were Laura Purdy (University of Toronto), Michael S. Pritchard (Western Michigan University), and Rosalind Ekman Ladd (Wheaton College). The session was organized and chaired by Maura Geisser (Brown University). At the Pacific Division meeting we had an exciting, standing-room-only symposium on teaching philosophy in pre-college classrooms. This session featured Gareth B. Matthews (UMass, Amherst), Michael S. Pritchard (Western Michigan University), David Shapiro (University of Washington) and Elizabeth Baird Saenger (Ethical Culture, Fieldston School). The session was organized and chaired by Jana Mohr Lone (Washington University & The Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children). Finally, we are looking forward to our Eastern Division meeting session co-sponsored with the Committee on International Cooperation. This session is entitled Sophie’s Travels: Children Doing Philosophy Around the World. The participants include Walter Kohan (University of Brasilia, President of the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children), Jen Glaser (Hebrew University, Jerusalem), Megan Laverty (Trinity College, University of Melbourne & School of Philosophy, New South Wales) and Scott Brophy (Hobart and William Smith Colleges). This session was organized by Jana Mohr Lone (University of Washington & The Northwest Center for Philosophy for Children) and Jean Chambers (SUNY, Oswego). Our primary goal for 1999-2000, besides hosting the APA sessions, was to initiate a newsletter for pre-college philosophy. We are very pleased and grateful that the Board of the APA has given us both moral and financial support for this endeavor. Jana Mohr Lone envisioned this project and she will be the editor-in-chief. The newsletter, which will be called Questions, will feature pre-college students at different grade levels and in different parts of the country actually doing philosophy (through transcribed tapes of discussions, as well as essays, stories, pictures and photographs). The first issue will be on Childrens Rights and will be produced by May-June of 2001. At the Pacific Division meeting the Pre-College Committee met to discuss and organize the newsletter, to welcome the new (as of July 2000) members of the Committee and to begin the transition of the Committee its new leadership. I have now ended my term of service as Chair of this Committee and I welcome Mark Weinstein (Montclair State University) as its new Chair. As I leave, I thank Jerry Schneewind, Richard Bett, and the APA Board for their encouragement and support of pre-college philosophy. Finally, I thank all the members of the Committee (1997-2000) who contributed time, effort, ideas, and most of all, themselves. It has been a great pleasure to work with you, and you have inspired me by your commitment to children, education and philosophy!
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