The following testimonials were collected from students at Medford High School:
“I enjoyed the workshop so much this year. I really valued the varying perspectives offered by group members and the real-life applications of principles offered by the Tufts students in discussions. I have a stronger sense of my beliefs than when we began!”
“I really enjoyed how we were able to bring our own ideas into the conversation and it was very open and hearing the different opinions and ideas was very interesting.”
“I really appreciated this program because it provides participants with the opportunity to think creatively and openly while regular classes do not. We were all given many opportunities to provide input to the conversation.
“Honestly, I actually enjoyed the fact that I was exposed to ideas of others and that I was forced out of my comfort zone in terms of thinking and sharing my thoughts.”
Instructors reflected upon their time teaching philosophy:
“My favorite moment was when one of the students said that this was ‘a bunch of smart people stuff.’ He had been participating just as much as everyone else and had really wonderful ideas—it seemed like he had never thought about anything philosophically and just thought it was so cool.”
– Audrey Ledbetter
“While it’s important for students to be respectful of each other’s ideas in a class discussion, I think it’s equally important to not shy away from disagreement and conflict. The students all did an excellent job of challenging each other to elaborate and clarify their positions.”
– Zoe McKeown
“Students were comfortable complicating one another’s thoughts in a very considerate and respectful manner. It was really rewarding, personally, to see.”
– Blake Anderson
“The topic of free will is important to our students, who will soon be faced with many life decisions. Our students will be deciding which college they want to attend, whether they want to attend college at all, and what kind of person they wish to be. I kept these big decisions in mind while teaching.”
– Tyler Munowitz
“It was really fun to watch the reasoning abilities of the students develop over the course of the semester. They learned how to defend their ideas and respectfully disagree with each other, which was so cool to watch!”
– Philosophy for Children instructor Fall ’22
“I am a Child Study and Human Development major at Tufts and have been working with kids since I was in middle school. I was so impressed by the ways in which the 5 year olds in my group were able to reason, ask questions, and ponder questions that I still don’t know how to wrap my head around. I hope to take what I have learned in this class and use it when I work with children in the future.”
– Mindy Duggan