TC Today - Teachers College Columbia University

The PHILOSOPHER
After School, With Plato and Aristotle
Tim Ignaffo and friends are introducing teens to philosophy
The poet Kahlil Gibran said that “a teacher can only
lead you to the threshold of your own mind.”
Timothy Ignaffo, a student in TC’s Philosophy and
Education program, believes philosophy is the perfect tool
for leading middle and high school students to that threshold.
Adolescence is a time for exploring life’s larger meaning,
and students find their own questions reflected in
Aristotle, Plato and Kant.
In 2009 Ignaffo—a former English language arts teacher
who co-majored in philosophy as an undergraduate—
joined forces with fellow Philosophy and Education doctoral
student Guillermo Marini and Columbia University
doctoral student Michael Seifried to launch the Philosophy
Outreach Program.
Funded by the Squire Foundation and TC’s Provost’s
Investment Fund, the program provides after-school philosophy
instruction to students at a half-dozen New York
City public schools through text-based discussion groups
and occasional guest lectures.
The centerpiece of the program is a collaboration with
Columbia Secondary School (CSS), a middle and high school
three blocks from TC where Philosophy and Education graduate
students gain experience teaching actual philosophy
courses. Ignaffo recently helped orchestrate two exciting
A nuanced dialogue on
education has to go beyond
philosophy. We want to get the
kids thinking broadly and deeply
about all subjects.
developments at CSS: the Fellows Program at CSS, which
provides stipends for Columbia and TC students who teach at
the school; and Transitional C certification for students who
have taught for at least one semester at CSS, which counts
their work with the program as student teaching hours and
ultimately enables them to work as classroom teachers.
Ignaffo’s vision for the program continues to grow. He and
his colleagues are working to establish a nonprofit, tentatively
called The Center for Humanistic and Philosophical
Education, through which graduate students would introduce
other disciplines in public schools.
Meanwhile, momentum for pre-collegiate philosophy is also
growing, a development in which Ignaffo and his colleagues
have had a direct hand. In October 2010, they organized a
national conference at TC that brought together more than
180 philosophy-minded educators and students from top
institutions, including Yale and the University of Arizona.
According to Ignaffo, who is also Program Manager/Field
Coordinator for TC’s Early Childhood Education Program, the
conference proved that “there really is a need for sharing
resources and creating a larger network.”
“A nuanced dialogue on education has to go beyond philosophy,”
he says. “We want to get the kids thinking broadly
and deeply about all subjects. This is a holistic endeavor.”
— Suzanne Guillette
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PHOTOGRAPH BY Lisa Farmer