At our recent Philosophy Teachers conference, Dr David Legg (Philosophy teacher at St Peters College, Auckland) was awarded life time membership to the NZAPT. He was also the inaugural recipient of the NZAPT Gadfly award. David retires from teaching this year.

Want Philosophy offered in more schools? If so, then join our Facebook group!

Philosophy is the most awesome subject. Where else can you ask (and answer) such fascinating questions as: Does God exist? Is my mind identical to my brain? Is my brain a computer? What is evolution? Where did the Universe come from? Is it morally permissible to kill a murderer? What is a conscious experience? What is beauty? Are we obliged to care for the poor?

Students love Philosophy, and yet only a handful of New Zealand schools offer the subject. Do you want more Philosophy in schools? Let’s get it out there.

Let’s add your school’s name to this list:

==Schools teaching Philosophy==
* Hagley Community College
* Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti
* Auckland Girls’ Grammar
* St Peter’s College
* Rangi Ruru Girls’ School
* Tauranga Boys’ College
* Western Springs College

Be a part of this movement, Click…

It is always pleasing to hear of another school offering Philosophy to its students. Christchurch’s Burnside Highschool now has a weekly Philosophy club, which operates on Thursday afternoons. The club is facilitated by Brent Milligan and is attracting a good number of students. So far this year the group has been covering metaphysics and they will soon move on to ethics.

We look forward to hearing more as the Philosophy club at Burnside grows.

We have launched a new Facebook group which will serve as an additional networking option for New Zealand teachers of Philosophy.
>>Click to visit NZAPT on Facebook

Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti (Christchurch) now has 4 Philosophy teachers, thus confirming the demand for this popular subject. Brent Silby started teaching Philosophy at Unlimited back in 2004, and over the subsequent years the subject has grown in popularity, requiring additional teachers to meet student demand. Last year, Unlimited’s Tracey Mills (Holistic teacher) started teaching a Philosophy course to satisfy demand. This year, Unlimited employed Kyle Webb as a Philosophy/English teacher, and in addition, Nathan Woods (English teacher) has started supporting students who are working on Philosophy Inquiry projects.

Students clearly love Philosophy, and Unlimited is meeting the need. Undoubtedly there will be students in schools not currently offering Philosophy who would jump at the chance to learn the subject if it was available.

If you know of any schools or teachers who are interested in offering Philosophy, please direct the to this website. Let’s get more Philosophy into more schools!

Thanks to Libby Giles who has provided the 2010 Subject Association report. This is to be talked through at the 2010 NZAPT conference hosted at Unlimited in Christchurch City.

>>Click to Download subject_assn_forum_2010_report (pdf)

A nice article written by student Rose Matafeo (Auckland Girls Grammar) on why we study Philosophy.

Download Article (PDF–to save, Right-Click Save File As)

If you have an article that you would like to submit, please contact brent<at>def-logic.com or michael.couch<at>canterbury.ac.nz