Discovering Virtue Through Socratic Seminar

EDU 6120 Week 6

Herbart wrote that virtue expresses the whole purpose of education. He defined virtue as the “inner freedom that has developed into an abiding actuality of the individual.” Put more simply, Herbart believed that education and the responsibility of the teacher was to create the environment where a student can grow by safely embarking down a twisting and challenging path of individual curiosity, discovery and as Maslow would say, achieve self-actualization. This, at first, might sound counterproductive to the democratic charge of education today, which focuses on socialization, multicultural awareness, and an emphasis on collaboration and collective responsibilities. However, I believe that exercises and strategies like dialogue circles, Socratic seminars and thinking routines simultaneously serve these two idealistic aims of education by empowering and awakening the individual all the while creating the space and patience for collaboration, understanding and listening across difference.

My first, and arguably best, experience with Socratic seminar came during my 12^th grade AP English course. Dr. William “Doc” Carter was an institution at AHS by the time I took his course. He taught my mother the same course 30 years prior, though he didn’t have his doctorate in philosophy yet. Question of the day, his brand of Socratic seminar, was a routine that today, 12 years later, I still reminisce about with my friends from high school. All of us agree, this practice was an indelible component of our high school education. And upon further reflection, I think it is memorable both because of its atypical and democratic design of a classroom (i.e. we all sat in a circle facing our classmates) and the premium it placed upon each person’s “air time” to work through their own ideas and truth.

Each day Doc posed a question for the groups’ appraisal and reflections. Sometimes it was as inane as: “what’s your favorite color and why?” and other times as essential and challenging as: “does the death penalty serve as an adequate punishment or deterrent?” Every individual would be given 30 seconds to a few minutes to share their own ideas before there could be any questions, debate or dialogue from the whole group. Some days sharing, listening and dialogue was discursive, other days it was cogent, reflective and pregnant with meaning – all favorite Doc-isms of mine. On occasion, the topic was so rich that we easily talked the entire 55-minute period – many of us eager to stay through lunch and keep going.

I only remember covering four texts that year: The Iliad, Plato’s The Republic, Hamlet, and Brave New World – in that order. How incredible (and meta) looking back that we read and explored the formulation of meaning through The Allegory of the Cave while in Socratic seminar. What a remarkable modeling of collaborative work that charged each individual with being reflective, present and contemplative. This was next-level democratic teaching. Doc’s carefully constructed routine was reliable for each of us and such a platform readily enabled improvisation and investigation.

During Hamlet we were tasked with memorizing Hamlet’s soliloquy “to be or not to be…” where he contemplates the merits of suicide. I can still perform the entire thing 12 years later and remember vividly each of us standing and reciting from memory as much of the soliloquy as we could. I remember that it was only one other band and theatre nerd (like myself) who could recite it in its entirety.

Additionally, we had spiral-bound journals that we submitted to him bi-weekly for feedback on our poetry, short stories, and reflections from seminar as well as personal musings. This exercise was a useful contrast to our usual outlet for self-expression in his class and often included extensive, detailed and probing feedback.

Through each of the pedagogical strategies, Doc imparted his educational philosophy: we were, in his class and throughout the rest of our lives, to embark on the work of knowing ourselves for the sake of our interaction with and pursuit of understanding others. We were challenged to continually ask questions of others and ourselves and never believe that we had answers set in stone – big or small.

During his 44 years teaching high school English, Doc modeled and imparted this philosophy to countless students. Both directly and indirectly he demonstrated the that the virtuous inner life and goal of knowing our true self meant continually challenging our assumptions and biases – especially when it came to listening and working to understanding another’s struggle, strife or perspective. Doc inexorably shaped my educational philosophy and practice. I hope that I can continue to cultivate the patience and strength to lead by his example and pay it forward just the same.