Philosophy For Children

The thrilling story of the charismatic explorer who Simon Bolivar called "the true discoverer of South America" and the daring expedition that altered the course of science. From 1799 to 1804 German naturalist and adventurer Alexander von Humboldt conducted the first extensive scientific exploration of Latin America.

Children will benefit from Dharmachari Nagaraja's appealing combination of warmth, wisdom, wit and playfulness in this third book from the At Bedtime series. Growing up in the modern world, our children can often feel distracted, stressed and anxious. The ancient wisdom of Buddhism, with its emphasis on peace, compassion and mindfulness, is the ideal basis for helping any child face the challenges of daily life with increased confidence and calm.

Parents are beginning to realize that deficiencies in ethics and character are becoming a big problem among our nation's children. According to the latest data, lying, cheating, and rampant insensitivity to other people are increasingly common. What can parents do? In this book, ethics expert Rushworth Kidder shows how to customize interventions to a child's age and temperament. He encourages parents not to give up, since what they do can always make a difference, regardless of how long or deep the bad habits of dishonesty may be.

Education expert Tony Wagner situates our school problems in the context of the global knowledge economy and analyzes the skills necessary for our young people to succeed.

Do teachers have a front-row seat to America’s decline? Jeremy S. Adams, a teacher at both the high school and college levels, thinks so. Adams has spent decades trying to instill wisdom, ambition, and a love of learning in his students. And yet, as he notes, when teachers get together, they often share an arresting conclusion: Something has gone terribly wrong. Something essential is missing in our young people. Their curiosity seems stunted, their reason undeveloped, their values uninformed, their knowledge lacking, and, most worrying of all, their humanity diminished.

The Athenian court has found Socrates guilty and sentenced him to death. While he is waiting to be executed, his friend, Crito, comes to the prison to persuade him to escape and go into exile. Socrates responds by examining the essence of law and community, probing the various kinds of law and making distinctions that go far beyond the particular issue of whether or not Socrates should escape.

In productive classrooms, teachers don't just teach children skills, they build emotionally and relationally healthy learning communities. Teachers create intellectual environments that produce not only technically competent students, but also caring, secure, actively literate human beings.

Different minds learn differently. We must pay attention to individual learning patterns, to individual minds so that we can maximize children's performance in school and in life. In A Mind at a Time, Dr. Levine shows us how.

In Nourishing Caregiver Collaborations, Nawal Qarooni invites us to step beyond school-centric, one-off events and practices to create more authentic, engaging collaborations with caregivers. Instead of asking what families can do to support schools, Qarooni asks how schools can identify and celebrate what families already bring to their children's literacy learning.

As we enter the operating room, the mother embraces me tightly. "I'm entrusting her to you," she says. She notices the hint of a tear in my eye. Her daughter's life is quite literally in our hands; there's no other way to put it. "Scalpel for Dreznik," Dr. Dlugy commands, as we stand before an abdomen distended by the tumor. "Make the incision." In a sensitive way yet sharp as a surgeon's knife, Dr. Dreznik, a pediatric surgeon, describes the most special, emotional, and overwhelming stories of life, illnesses and death. It's the world in which one of the most beautiful missions of humanity...

From best-selling author Paul Tough, an indelible and explosive book on the glaring injustices of higher education, including unfair admissions tests, entrenched racial barriers, and crushing student debt. Now updated and expanded for the pandemic era. Combining vivid and powerful personal stories with deep, authoritative reporting, Paul Tough explains how we got into this mess and explores the innovative reforms that might get us out.

The Brain-Based Classroom translates findings from educational neuroscience into a new paradigm of practices suitable for any teacher. The human brain is a site of spectacular capacity for joy, motivation, and personal satisfaction, but how can educators harness its potential to help children reach truly fulfilling goals? Using this innovative collection of brain-centric strategies, teachers can transform their classrooms into deep learning spaces that support their students through self-regulation and mindset shifts.

Philosophy: A Children's Encyclopedia brings the history of ideas and thinking to life, from metaphysics to moral imperatives. With biographies of the most influential philosophers from around the world, young listeners will explore the questions and answers that have been fundamental to the development of scientific study, logical thinking, religious beliefs, laws and governance and much more. Thought experiments peppered throughout will help to connect listeners with the ideas presented so they can apply them to their own lives.

The dramatic nature of Plato's dialogues is delightfully evident in Symposium. The marriage between character and thought bursts forth as the guests gather at Agathon's house to celebrate the success of his first tragedy. With wit and insight, they all present their ideas about love - from Erixymachus' scientific naturalism to Aristophanes' comic fantasy. The unexpected arrival of Alcibiades breaks the spell cast by Diotima's ethereal climb up the staircase of love to beauty itself.

Imagine this: You're walking past a shallow pond and spot a toddler thrashing around in the water, in obvious danger of drowning. You look around for her parents, but nobody is there. You're the only person who can save her and you must act immediately. But as you approach the pond you remember that you're wearing your most expensive shoes. Wading into the water will ruin them—and might make you late for a meeting. Should you let the child drown?

In this, his first book, Nietzsche developed a way of thinking about the arts that unites the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus as the central symbol of human existence. Although tragedy serves as the focus of this work, music, visual art, dance, and the other arts can also be viewed using Nietzsche's analysis and integration of the Apollonian and the Dionysian. The Birth of Tragedy stands alongside Aristotle's Poetics as an essential work for all who seek to understand poetry and its relationship to human life.

A compilation of ten articles, Montessori Topics of Interest explores a variety of themes pertinent to anyone interested in learning more about the Montessori Method of education for children two-and-a-half through six years of age. Topics covered include Montessori’s holistic integration of mathematics, how geography gives a face to humanity, the outdoor environment as an extension of the indoor classroom, and the presentation of fact-based literature rather than fantasy for young children. Written in a conversational tone, Montessori Topics of Interest is an enjoyable reading experience...

In 2017, seven-year-old Ava in South Carolina wrote a letter to Tyshaun, an eight-year-old boy from Washington, DC. She asked him to be her pen pal; Ava thought they could help each other. The kids had a tragic connection - both were traumatized by gun violence. Ava’s best friend had been killed in a campus shooting at her elementary school, and Tyshaun’s father had been shot to death outside of the boy’s elementary school. Ava’s and Tyshaun’s stories are extraordinary, but not unique.

By official count, more than one out of every six American children live beneath the poverty line. But statistics alone tell little of the story. In Invisible Americans, Jeff Madrick brings to light the often invisible reality and irreparable damage of child poverty in America. Keeping his focus on the children, he examines the roots of the problem, including the toothless remnants of our social welfare system, entrenched racism, and a government unmotivated to help the most voiceless citizens.

A world without laughter is no laughing matter. On Planet Stone the Fat Professors have banned laughter. But during one of Professor Walton Flowers’ pompous sermons, Elvis, the rebel genius, and brightest star of the Stone Academy, gets the biggest laugh ever when he accidentally breaks wind. Exiled to Earth, Elvis contrives to take Flowers with him. But in no time the Professor is implementing his evil philosophy. Elvis sets up secret Laughter Dens to keep the gift alive, and save Earth from becoming as humourless as Stone. Then one day a message arrives. Theodore Dee, a Fat Professor ...