ConVal High School
Philosophy Class

The ConVal High School Community is dedicated to learning, thinking and growing.

Home

 

 

"People are not ignorant for what they do not know,
rather they are ignorant for what they know that is not true."

Michael O'Leary

 

 

 

 

"We are all drugged by our own frenzy."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 



"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation...From the desperate city you go into the desperate country.... A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind."

Henry David Thoreau

 

 

 



"It is not how much a man has which makes him happy, it is how little he wants."

Seneca

 

 

 



"We should be as conservative in our offenses as we are in our confessions."

Michel de Montaigne

 

 

 

 

      

Welcome to Philosophy Class. the purpose of this class is to read the writings of great thinkers of the past, discuss the relevance of their ideas, and identify whatever wisdom they have to offer us. You will be surprised how much of what they thought can guide us today.

      I hope that the members of this class can inspire each other and me with original insights and ideas. I also hope that this website can develop into a useful and important source of information and scholastic exhibition.

     To that end, I have chosen a few of my favorite quotes from American writers and posted them to the left. I started with one of my own, and I hope that each of you will submit your own quote soon, Ideas from the past should serve to inspire us to communicate our own thoughts, and this is just a start.

      This site will also serve to remind you of assignments, inform you about our daily activities, and provide you with forms and documents you may need during the course of the class. Spend some time exploring the site to see what is here. If you have any ideas about how the site can be improved, let me know.

     It might prove useful to know something about me, as I will be learning about each of you. I was born, bred and educated in Merrimack, NH. This is my 28th year of teaching. I student taught at ConVal in 1976 and was hired that summer as a full time teacher. I teach Sophomore English, Journalism, Mystery and Crime and Philosophy. I live at 15 Winter Street in Peterborough with my wife Betsy, who is a fourth grade teacher/assistant principal at Troy Elementary School. I have two sons, Marcus who graduated from ConVal in 2002 and Lucas who is a senior at Conval. I enjoy reading, writing and gardening. I have been trying to figure out how to use computers well in my classes and this website is an example of that. I am the website coordinator for the high school and I am the advisor to the school newspaper.

     I am a liberal and an idealist. I believe in people and in education. I think that people need to be educated more now than ever before and that education is still the key to personal contentment and improvement. I love to read Plato, Seneca and Montaigne. I occasionally write columns for The Keene Sentinel and The ConVal Current.