Introduce your kids to 3 classic philosophical works from Plato, Aristotle and Rene Descartes for one lower price than buying separately.
Plato
Imagine if you lived in a dark cave your entire life without ever leaving. Then one day you left and discovered for the first time things like grass, birds, ice cream and professional wrestling. Would you jump for joy or run back to embrace sweet darkness?
Plato is one of the best known philosophers and pretty easy for kids to read. He wrote in dialogue form which reads much like a play. Taken from The Republic, the Allegory of the Cave is presented by Socrates who compares our lives to being chained up in a cave with only shadows to watch on a wall. Kids will learn about being open minded, curious and how their thinking might be biased.
This lesson plan comprises 7 sessions — each of which can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes. Sessions include the following:
- Text of the Allegory of the Cave taken from Plato’s Republic re-styled for easier reading.
- Vocabulary exercises.
- Explanation of symbolism in the allegory and ties to modern applications.
- Socratic questions to start discussion.
- Example illustration and exercise for kids to draw their own interpretation of the allegory.
- Interactive game to re-enact the allegory.
- Finding adaptations of the allegory in movies.
- Brief stories from history of individuals who experience the perils described in the cave allegory.
- A guide for kids to conduct an interview that helps them practice summarizing what they’ve learned, asking thoughtful questions and active listening.
- Workbook activities that help solidify concepts learned from the allegory such as crossword, bingo, word find, decode the message.
- Available in printed soft-back or ebook. Both include a link to a printable PDF.
Aristotle
Can you guess Aristotle’s opinion on Instagram followers and Facebook friends? Turns out, he gives us a pretty good answer. What do you think makes a good friendship? How many friends can we have? Try to apply old ideas to modern concepts of friendship.
This lesson plan comprises 5 sessions — each of which can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes. Sessions include the following:
- Excerpts from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics on friendship.
- Highlighted keywords and commentary to help clarify as you read.
- Vocabulary exercises.
- Socratic questions to start discussion.
- Modern friendship profiles to examine and compare to Aristotle’s friend types.
- Overview of research on human capacity for friendships from evolutionary anthropologists. Compares research to Aristotle’s friend types and allows kids to apply it to their own lives in a friendship spectrum activity.
- Discover how friendships correlate with social skills and how practice can make social interaction easier.
- A final project to encourage communication with those considered a close friend.
- Workbook activities that help solidify concepts learned such as decode the message and an islands puzzle.
- Available in printed soft-back or ebook. Both include a link to a printable PDF.
Descartes
How do I know if I’m real? Are my senses fooling me? Am I dreaming or am I really riding this ostrich on top of the White House? Join us as we dig into René Descartes’ Meditations about what truly exists and what is suspect to doubt.
This lesson plan comprises 6 sessions — each of which can be completed in 20 to 30 minutes. Sessions include the following:
- Excerpts from René Descartes’ Meditations On First Philosophy.
- Highlighted keywords and commentary to help clarify as you read.
- Vocabulary exercises.
- Socratic questions to start discussion.
- Break down the Meditations into premises and place them in an Argument Pyramid.
- Consider your own beliefs and create a belief tree. Explore the underpinnings of what you believe.
- Demonstrations of illusions that can fool our senses. What can trick our brain into thinking that something is different from what it seems.
- Understand why Descartes uses an analogy of an evil genius where kids can draw and explain such a scenario.
- A final project that walks kids through how to teach what they have learned to someone else. They will present Descartes’ argument for “I think, therefore I am.”.
- Workbook activities that help solidify concepts learned such as decode the message and a “I think” sudoku.
- Available in printed soft-back or ebook. Both include a link to a printable PDF.
