Jana Mohr Lone

Jana Mohr Lone is the director and founder of the University of Washington Center for Philosophy for Children, which is dedicated to introducing philosophy to K-12 students. Philosophy sessions encourage children to explore essential questions about life — Who am I? Why am I here? What is a good life? — using children’s books and activities to inspire discussions that emerge from the children’s own questions, based on the understanding that questioning is central to independent thinking. Children think for themselves about their experiences, recognize that there are many ways to understand the world, and examine their own views, and in the process develop confidence in their own questions and ideas as well as lifelong critical and creative thinking skills. The Center’s “Philosophers in the Schools” program has introduced philosophy to thousands of K-12 students. The Center also runs workshops for teachers and parents about ways to facilitate philosophy discussions with young people. Since receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy in 1996, Jana Mohr Lone has taught philosophy to K-12 students in Seattle and around the country and run programs to introduce teachers, parents, grandparents, college and graduate students, and others to methods for bringing philosophy into young people's lives. She is the author of The Philosophical Child, a book for parents and grandparents about having philosophical exchanges with children, as well as numerous articles about philosophical inquiry with children. She co-edited the book Philosophy and Education: Introducing Philosophy to Young People, and writes the blog Wondering Aloud: Philosophy with Young People. She is the president of PLATO (Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization), a national organization that advocates and supports introducing philosophy to young people, and chairs the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Pre-College Instruction in Philosophy. She frequently speaks at conferences and other events around the country about children’s philosophical thinking.

Jana tweets from @JanaMohrLone