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It explains the school’s goals: strengthening students’ skills in argument and questioning, linking sciences with humanities, and supporting dialogue across a diverse community. 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The text notes that students work through an early version of mathematical probability to evaluate the choice to believe.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"When did Columbia Secondary School’s philosophy program begin, and what was its original purpose?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The philosophy program dates to the school’s beginnings in 2009. It aimed to enrich students’ education by introducing argument, questioning, and rich philosophical works.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How did the curriculum evolve after the program faced tragedy and instability?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"After setbacks including the removal of the principal and staff turnover, a new principal hired the author as a part-time curriculum adviser. Because the program lacked clear direction, the author chose to write a curriculum and designed courses for grades 9–11, later expanding to a 12th-grade offering.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},590456,1792428549,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":29,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1374404730887,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","You Are Embarked  \nHow a Philosophy Curriculum Took Shape and Took O􀀞  \nILLUSTRAT IONS BY ENRIQUE MOREIRO  \nBy Diana Senechal  \nO  \nutdoors, the wind blew and the rain fell. Indoors, 10thgraders wrestled with Blaise Pascal’s Wager—his argument that one has everything to gain and little to lose by choosing to believe in God.“Yes, but you must  \nwager,” he writes.“It isnot optional. You are embarked.”1 He then uses an early version of mathematical probability to demonstrate that one is better o􀀞 believing.  \nI looked atthe studentsporing over the text—underlining passages, raising their hands, commenting to their peers—and I saw that they themselves were embarked, although in a di􀀞erent way. ey had chosen to take the philosophy course seriously. A few years ago, when I began teaching at Columbia Secondary School forMath, Science, and Engineering, I could not take this for granted.  \nDiana Senechal teaches philosophy at Columbia Secondary School for Math, Science, and Engineering in New York City; in addition, she serveson the faculty of the Sue Rose Summer Institute for Teachers at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. She is the 2011 recipient of the Hiett Prize in the Humanities and the author of Republic of Noise: e Loss of Solitude in Schools and Culture.  \nSome students took enthusiastically to my courses; others chatted in class or complained that I didn’t give them enough fun things todo. Now, the vast majority showed interest in class and turned in their work; many contributed to the school’s philosophy journal and took part in philosophy roundtables. In addition, students now in college have commented that the philosophy courses have helped them withalloftheir work by introducing them to seminal ideas, modes of argument, and an intellectual way of life.  \nIf someone had told me 􀀜ve years ago that I would be a highschool philosophy teacher, I would have been astounded and thrilled. At age 12, I began taking Latin and Greek at school; soon after, I read ancient philosophers in the original and in translation. In college, I studied Russian literature and took electivesin European intellectual history, African American intellectual history, Renaissance thought, and other topics involving philosophy; in graduate school, I dug into Russian philosophy, theology, linguistics, and mythology for my dissertation and other work. Later, teaching English as a second language in middle school in Brooklyn, New York, I introduced my students to Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine; my book, Republic of Noise:  \ne Loss of Solitude in Schools and Culture, devotes much atten-  \n18 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2015  \ntion to philosophical ideas and texts.* Yet until 2011, I did not know thatit was possible to teach philosophy in a public school.  \nA Brief History  \nColumbia Secondary School’s philosophy program dates to the school’s beginnings in 2009. The founding principal, José Maldonado-Rivera, envisioned a philosophy curriculum throughout the grades (6–12). In the school’s initial years, the scholar and educator Paul omson spearheaded the program and brought alivelydialogical spirit to the classes; teachers, graduate students, researchers, and others took part in the work. omson left the school in 2011 and died in 2013; the 􀀜rst issue of our philosophy journal, CONTRARIWISE, is dedicated to his memory.  \ne philosophy program is intended to enrich students’ overall education by introducing them to argument, questioning, and rich philosophical works. In addition, philosophy serves to connect sciences with humanities and foster dialogue within the school’s diverse community. Columbia Secondary School is a selective public school in New York City with a highly diverse student body. Approximately 46 percent of the students identify as Hispanic, 21 percent as African American, 18 percent as white, and 13 percent as Asian; the students come from numerous nationalities and speak a range of languages at home. Approximately 56 percent qualify","cbCaitq8NnFycRe7","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaitq8NnFycRe7","pdf",174209,"English","# A Brief History\n## Program goals and community context\n## Early development and leadership change\n## Building the high school curriculum\n# Teaching approach and student response","[{\"question\":\"What argument does Pascal’s Wager provide in the opening scene, and how is it used in class?\",\"answer\":\"Pascal’s Wager argues that belief in God offers more to gain than to lose. The text notes that students work through an early version of mathematical probability to evaluate the choice to believe.\"},{\"question\":\"When did Columbia Secondary School’s philosophy program begin, and what was its original purpose?\",\"answer\":\"The philosophy program dates to the school’s beginnings in 2009. It aimed to enrich students’ education by introducing argument, questioning, and rich philosophical works.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the curriculum evolve after the program faced tragedy and instability?\",\"answer\":\"After setbacks including the removal of the principal and staff turnover, a new principal hired the author as a part-time curriculum adviser. Because the program lacked clear direction, the author chose to write a curriculum and designed courses for grades 9–11, later expanding to a 12th-grade offering.\"}]","You Are Embarked - How a Philosophy Curriculum Took Shape and Took O􀀞 | PDF",1792069668,15]