"This is something I've been trying to put together for some time now," said Philosophy club advisor at CCS and adjunct for SUNY Oneonta Bill Rath.

His efforts to get philosophy started at the high school level began with the creation of a philosophy club for high school students, who would meet during lunch. This year, because the interest was so high, a credited philosophy class was added for students to attend twice a week, at 7:30 a.m.

Because of the time restraint, the students have agreed to continue discussions from their philosophy class during their lunch-time philosophy club meetings.

Rath is looking to create CAPE, the Center for the Advancement of Philosophical Education, which will hopefully become a partnership between public schools and a university or college.

A year and a half ago, the partnership Rath was trying to create with SUNY Oneonta did not work out. At this point, there seems to be interest from Colgate University, said Rath.

"I'm hoping that something will come out of that," he said.

The partnership of a public school with a college or university, Rath hopes, will provide training, curriculum and text suggestions for high schoolers.

"Our feeling is, if we could make that easier then maybe more schools might be interested in bringing Philosophy into the regular school schedule," Rath said.

In beginning this initiative, Rath recently spoke with representatives of the Ontario High School Philosophy Project, who have offered their assistance. The Ontario High School Philosophy Project now educates 10,000 students with their program- which began only 5 years ago, Rath said.

Rath said he was very pleased with the amount of success that organization has had. He said that the biggest problem they are facing now is getting enough teachers trained to meet the growing demands of the students.

"Clearly there is an interest," he said.

He hopes that with community involvement, CAPE could be established. CAPE would become the first program of it's kind in the United States.

"It's kind of exciting," Rath said.

The only other program Rath knows of is an elementary philosophy program in New Jersey.

The students he has encountered at CCS are capable of doing college level course, he said. Also, he feels that "everything helps" when students are in the process of applying for colleges.

"These [high school students] just knock me out with the kind of insights and intellectual breakthroughs they come up with," said Rath.

In fact, just last year, the Philosophy Club was invited to speak on Philosophical issues during the eighth annual Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at SUNY.

A meeting for parents, students and faculty members has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 1 at 7 p.m. at the high school cafeteria to discuss the future of the Philosophy class.

Another meeting has also been scheduled for the philosophy students to present to the school board during their regular meeting on Wednesday, June 16.