Christopher Phillips, internationally known philosopher and author of bestseller "Socrates Café: a Fresh Taste of Philosophy", and "The Philosophy of Childing: Unlocking Creativity, Curiosity and Reason through the Wisdom of our Youngest", will be at Harwood Union High School on November 13th from 6-8 pm, as part of Harwood’s popular Socrates Café program. Dr. Phillips has been a Network Fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and was a 2012 recipient of the Distinguished American Leadership Award. He is the founder of Democracy Cafe, and a recent Senior Education Fellow at the National Constitution Center, as well as senior writing and research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rowland Fellow and Philosophy and Three Democracies Harwood teacher Katherine Cadwell began these popular Socratic dialogues at Harwood seven years ago. Since then trained student facilitators have led multiple discussions of “timeless and timely” questions, in well-attended events that have transformed teaching and learning at the school. The Socrates Cafes are based on ideas in Phillips’ first book, "Socrates Café", most importantly the idea that people learn more when they question. Socrates observed that, “wisdom begins in wonder.” A primary goal of Dr. Phillips and the cafes is to inspire curiosity and wonder, to nurture self-discovery, openness and empathy. In that spirit, these gatherings welcome all members of the community, regardless of age, experience or background. The event is sponsored by Harwood Union High School, the Joslin Memorial Library in Waitsfield and the Waterbury Public Library. The question for the evening is: "How do we balance freedom and security in our democracy?" Phillips will kick off the evening and folks will break off into small groups where Harwood students who are experienced in leading Socratic Dialogues will facilitate the discussions. The event will take place in the Harwood Library beginning at 6pm. After small group discussions, the groups will reconvene to debrief and summarize. Refreshments will be offered at the end of the evening at 8 pm.

For more information contact: Katherine Cadwell, HUHS at katherinewcadwell@gmail.com , Joy Worland, Joslin Memorial Library at director@joslinmemoriallibrary.com or Judi Byron, Waterbury Public Library at judi@waterburypubliclibrary.com.
For more information on Christopher Phillips check out his websites: : http://www.socratescafe.com/?page_id=60
2) http://www.socratescafe.com/ 3) http://christopherphillips.com/

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