Philosophy is a Hit with Teenagers
Who would have thought it? A course in philosophy is a hit with teenagers at Huntington High School. That’s a credit to Peter Crugnale, the teacher that launched the course several years ago and students who aren’t the least bit put off by an unusual challenge.
Introduction to Philosophy will meet daily during the 2010 spring semester. Students who complete it will earn one-half of an academic credit. The course hopes to prepare Huntington students for a life of self-reflection and critical appraisal of their own environment and life.
Joseph Leavy, the district’s director of humanities, said that next spring there will be two “filled classes due to the popularity and challenge of the course. It is an ever growing program and a class that fully connects with many students' desire to critically question important basic issues related to life.” Enrollment in the two classes is 56.
Mr. Crugnale is always looking to improve the course and provide students with an even more meaningful experience. “I am working with the Squire Foundation, which is dedicated to the teaching of ethics and philosophy in the schools,” he said. “The thought is that philosophy, in a simpler form, is a subject that all grade levels can benefit from.”
Mr. Leavy noted Mr. Crugnale’s “passion for the discipline and his ongoing scholarly approach to the sub-topics of metaphysics, ethics and epistomology within philosophy. He is also very well versed in the central ideas of most of the central figures of more modern European philosophy, like Kant, Hegel, and Spinoza as well as the ancient Greek luminaries like Socarates, Plato and Aristotle.”
“Originally it was thought that we would only offer it every other year but demand has dictated otherwise,” Mr. Crugnale said. “I wrote the course from scratch and I am very proud that I can offer it here. I am also glad that the school sees it as a valuable elective and agreed to it. I plan to start up my after school philosophy club - the Agora, in November as I hope to put together a team of students to participate in an island-wide high school version of the Collegiate Ethics Bowl.”
An increasing number of Huntington graduates have decided to take philosophy as an elective course in college after their initial introduction to the subject in high school. Mr. Crugnale said that students who take his course “can expect to delve into such thoughts as who am I? Why do I exist? How should one behave? What is the good life? We discuss the issues that ultimately define who we are and what we can become. This is a course like no other and many students have mirrored the same sentiments. I could go on for hours.”
While the huge turnout for this year’s classes will make it somewhat difficult to carry on some of the organized discussions that Mr. Crugnale is famous for facilitating, the teacher said he’s “glad that so many students are interested in the course.”
“Mr. Crugnale is a master of the Socratic Method and he essentially compels his students to think deeply,” Mr. Leavy said. “I’ve had a few students over the years contact me from college, writing about how the course changed the way they think,” Mr. Crugnale said. “Two have gone on to major in philosophy and two are minors in it. A number of former students stay in touch with me about books they have read to discuss a philosophical question.”
For more information about the course contact Mr. Leavy at 673-2079 or jleavy@hufsd.edu.
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