What exactly makes you who you are? Is it something about your mind—about your personality or your memories and the way they fit together? Is it something about the way that other people perceive you? Is it about your physical body? Or is it about something else altogether?
High school students are rarely encouraged to explore philosophical questions like these inside the classroom. But we believe that should change! We have already seen the benefits of introducing philosophy to younger children in another of our programs: Philosophy in Public Schools (PiPS). Now, we want to make the opportunity to discover philosophy available to high school students as well.
Question Everything is a residential summer philosophy program for rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors from Western MA. The program will debut this summer of 2022 on the theme of “Identity and Diversity,” exploring questions similar to the ones posed above. Participants will spend two weeks on-campus at UMass-Amherst getting a taste of the authentic college experience by living in dorms, eating in our dining halls, and enjoying access to our libraries and recreational facilities. During weekdays, they will explore exciting philosophical issues with their instructors through activities like role-play, research, and debate; on evenings and weekends, they’ll be able to let loose by attending program-funded social events like movies and live performances! Our hope is to foster a college-going mindset in participants and to increase their intellectual curiosity, improve their critical thinking and reasoning abilities, and help them with the college application process.
It is important to us to target students from lower-income families and racial or ethnic groups that are underrepresented in higher education, because every student we admit will automatically receive a full scholarship to cover the cost of participation. And this is where we need your help! Mass Humanities has already awarded us a grant of $15,000 for this summer’s program, but we still need to raise at least another $5,000 more before it runs.
If you cannot afford a donation—and even if you can—please consider sharing this page with your friends on social media to help spread the word. We believe that teaching more young people philosophy today is the key to ensuring a world full of bright critical thinkers tomorrow. So let’s give some talented kids a chance to question everything!
