Communicating effectively is not limited to classical discourse like formal speeches or written compositions. Narration is a communication skill that is used in casual conversation more than the other two combined! Think about the countless times during a day that you ask your child questions…

• How did you sleep last night?
• What did you dream about?
• What are your plans for study today?
• What was the book about?
• What would you like for dinner?
• How did you spend your free time this afternoon?
• What do you want to be when you grow up?
• What did you learn from your reading?

Moms and Dads are great at asking questions! But the risk with asking open-ended questions is that you’ll get vague responses like “okay” (how did you sleep) “I can’t remember” (what was the book about), and “I don’t know” (what did you learn today). What you want to do as a classical home educator is draw out your child’s understanding so that he or she is giving you more than one-word grunts. You know that words have the power to change the world, and you want to raise world-changers who are eloquent and persuasive! Train them in giving concise, direct answers so that when they find themselves out in the community and someone asks a question, they are prepared.

So how do you coax your reluctant child to give thoughtful responses to your questions? Socratic Dialogue is one method that we use in our home school to great effect. In this post, I’ll show you how I do it using a real-life example from Meredith’s high school biology course.

Remember that Courtroom Drama?

Unless you are a practicing attorney, you probably haven’t had a lot of experience in using Socratic Dialogue. In fact, attorneys (and some home schoolers) are the only living Westerners who still use this classical tool. Attorneys receive training in Socratic method in law school where they learn to ask leading questions of a witness.

If you have ever been to a legal deposition or watched a courtroom drama, you know that a good prosecutor asks leading questions. In preparation for the trial, the attorney “deposes” the witness. In a deposition, the attorney asks the witness pertinent questions under oath, and a court transcript is created which both the defending and prosecuting teams receive. In deposing the witness, the attorney is trying to arrive at the facts of the case. These facts are the basis for the trial, and a skillful attorney will use these facts in asking leading questions of the witness so that the witness gives him the answers that he wants. Facts are the starting point for your Socratic Dialogue preparation, too.

What are the FACTS?

Just like the attorney, you need to know the facts before you can ask useful leading questions. Unless you are already an expert on the subject matter, you need to read the material along with your child. Now I am not saying that you have to read every single word that the child reads; if you have more than one child, the task of keeping up with all of the weekly reading assignments plus all of your other family responsibilities would be overwhelming! Be selective. You might choose one subtopic from your teenage daughter’s science reading, one chapter from your preteen son’s history reading, and one picture story book to read with your youngest child. (By the way, the Socratic method works well with both fiction or nonfiction.)

In this example, I listened to a Teaching Company Biology lecture with Meredith on DNA called “The Double Helix.” We put on the 30 minute DVD, and we both took “stick and branch” notes (see image to the left - thank you, Andrew Pudewa) as the lecture progressed. We paused the DVD if there were any concepts we didn’t understand. After we watched the entire lesson and outlined the concepts, we both wrote a brief abstract or summary of the notes in paragraph form. This step ensured that we organized our thoughts and clarified any obscurities in the sticks and branches. We follow this same procedure for each lecture.

After Meredith writes her summary, she either reads it to me or lets me read it. Often there is no need for further clarification because I can see from her oral or written narration that she understands the concepts. She has effectively communicated her understanding. However, perhaps there is a concept that I think is particularly important or one that she hasn’t quite captured in her notes. That concept would serve as the subject of my leading questions. (See the blue arrows and the highlighted areas of my notes.)

This gets a little technical, but bear with me. For this example, let’s say that I want to make sure that Meredith understands how nitrogenous bases (A, T, C, G) pair up as they attach to the sugars on the two DNA strands. The sugars on DNA strand #1 have nitrogenous bases (NB) which attach to the NB on DNA strand #2. Imagine that the DNA strands are the side rails on a staircase, and the NB connections are the stair treads. (See the highlighted area in my stick and branch drawing.) Now the tricky thing is NBs are either pyrimidines or purines which means that one is larger than the other one. So the larger NB on DNA strand #1 must attach to the smaller NB on DNA strand #2 (C + G), then the smaller NB on DNA strand #1 must attach to the larger NB on DNA strand #2 (A + T), and so forth all the way down the double helix or the imaginary stair tread would be lopsided, and the double helix would not be a double helix!

Plan the Leading Questions

Now that I know where I want to end up, I can plan the questions. The easiest way to tackle this task is to break the entire concept up into short answer questions like this:

1. What are the 2 nucleic acids on each DNA strand? (sugars and phosphates)
2. What are the 2 types of nitrogenous bases? (purines and pyrimidines)
3. How are the purines different from the pyrimidines? (size - purines are smaller)
4. What are the 2 purines? (adenine: A and guanine: G)
5. What are the 2 pyrimidines? (cytosine: C and thymine: T)
6. Which of the 2 nucleic acids, sugar or phosphate, attaches to the nitrogenous base? (sugar)
7. Can a sugar attach to any of the 4 nitrogenous bases? (yes)
8. If a sugar has a purine nitrogenous base, what must the connecting nitrogenous base be? (pyrimidine)
9. What would happen if a purine attached to a purine on the DNA strand? (the “stair tread” of the double helix would be lopsided, so that it didn’t look like a double helix anymore)

If you have carefully structured your line of questions, your child should end up right where you expected and chances are good that she will understand the steps of the concept better now that she has had to think through them logically. Additionally, as the child answers the questions, you can detect any misunderstandings and discuss them right away. Yes, it would be much easier to just tell them the answers, but then she wouldn’t own her understanding, would she? Socratic Dialogue is an effective communication tool because the child learns to break the concept or idea up into components, organize the thoughts, and relate them to the parent. The conversation usually expands beyond the initial questions as a full-fledged discussion emerges, and your rising classical scholar practices the art of rhetoric through narration and Socratic Dialogue.

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Do you have any questions for me on Socratic Dialogue? Please use the comment box below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Tags: classical discourse, classical home educators, communicating effectively, communication skill, critical thinking, high school, home school, homeschoolers, narration, questions, Rhetoric, socratic dialogue, Socratic method, speeches, think logically, written compositions

You’ve probably heard the Greek word “logos” used in a Christian sermon when the pastor, preaching from the Gospel of John, referred to Jesus as the “logos” or “Word” of the Father. According to a Greek Lexicon, the noun “logos” means “a word or discourse which embodies a conception or thought.” The English word “logic” for which the second skill of the classical trivium is named derives from the Greek “logos” and is most commonly defined as the “study of formal reasoning.” Therefore, one who studies logic is presumably capable of intelligent, reasoned speech.

The Ancient Greeks understood the logic of the trivium as both (1) informal logic like the reasoned, methodical conversations between Plato’s Socrates and his disciples and (2) formal logic as in the systematic principles of the syllogism (argument) of Aristotle. Socrates’ leading questions helped his students understand why they believed what they believed, but he never told them what to think. Aristotle devised a deductive method for determining whether the premises and conclusion of arguments were sound or unsound.

The motivation for learning logic in ancient, medieval, and colonial times was simple: to distinguish between good and bad arguments so that thinking and the resulting oratory were more effective. Contemporary classical home school parents have their children study logic for the same reasons:

to become critical thinkers who use language and reason to effectively communicate.

But the study of logic is not the starting point for teaching thinking. That comes much later when the child is ready to handle abstract thought.

So when do you start teaching your children to think? As soon as possible! Recent research points to the discovery that the brain’s capacity for rational thinking and problem-solving is established by the age of one! Children whose parents who have been actively speaking with them from birth have more complex networks of neurons which means they are predisposed to intelligence, creativity, and adaptability throughout life. In fact, John Chaffee, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of critical thinking, states that “the number of words that an infant hears each day is the most important predictor of later intelligence, academic success, and social competence.” Talk to your babies!

Children are full of energy, curiosity, and imagination which are all essential ingredients to critical thinking. Any parent knows that one of the favorite questions of children and teens is “Why?” Children explore. Children wonder. Children imagine. Here are three tips for nurturing your child’s natural curiosity and expanding their minds:

Take their questions seriously.

“Mom, why do lightening bugs glow? Dad, why does an onion make me cry? Mom, why do bubbles disappear when I touch them?” Questions, questions, questions. Living with children brings never-ending questions, or so it seems. My 15 year old popped a doozy of a question on me about race and economics today after we volunteered in a downtown mission! Sometimes, you might be tempted to dismiss the constant questions because you are too busy or just too tired, but resist the easy way out. When you take your children’s questions seriously, you are showing respect and validating their worth. Trust is built, and they feel secure in asking more questions without the fear of condemnation for being “silly” or “childish.” Additionally, we all want to protect our kids from the harsh realities of life, but don’t avoid life’s most difficult questions if you sense that they are mature enough to handle the answers or even find that you don’t have the answers.

Expose them to other perspectives.

When we look at issues from another person’s perspective, we broaden our own understanding, recognize our bias’, and gain insights that we wouldn’t have otherwise had. This week the kids and I joined another home schooling family for some community service; our kids spent a couple of hours teaching hands-on science at a Christian mission in a very depressed area of town. After the workshop was over, I asked the neighborhood kids if they needed any help on their homework, and they excitedly pulled their assignments out. Each teen sat down with a child who was living in a different culture: different race, different economy, different family life. But the Lord gives us the power to cross cultural barriers, and our kids connected with these children on a heart level. The little girl that Meredith was helping asked her to sit with her during the meal that followed.

As we drove home that evening, Meredith reflected on the disparity between the material poverty of this neighborhood and the extravagant wealth of the suburbs. Seeing life from that little girl’s perspective had opened Meredith’s eyes to a new reality. We’ve been serving as a family in inner-city missions for years, but for some reason, this was the day that my daughter really began to empathize on a deep level. Introduce other perspectives early and regularly because you never know when the light bulb will go off, and a new understanding begin to take shape.

Talk about right and wrong.

I know I’m preaching to the crowd on this one, but use every opportunity to train your children in righteousness. One of the key factors in critical thinking is knowing what you believe and why you believe it so that you can listen to others with different opinions and evaluate alternatives intelligently. Some of their most difficult questions will be those involving morals. For instance, in Treasure Island, Long John Silver is morally ambiguous. He is an unrepentant murderer and thief, yet he cares for Jim Hawkins and protects him from danger. How can someone who is bad do good things? Use literature and movies as opportunities to discuss good and bad, right and wrong.

Teach them why you believe what you believe. Explore Scripture for answers to their questions. Here’s an example of a moral question that you might run across when you’re reading Scripture. In Exodus, the midwives lie to Pharoah’s servants about the Israelite infants that they failed to kill. Are there certain situations when the Lord allows deceit? Scripture is full of moral issues that you need to explore as a family so that the kids are ready to take a stand when analyzing other positions. Also make sure that you are ‘walking the walk’ and ‘talking the talk,’ too!

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Questions are really just opportunities for stimulating discussion. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need to answer all their questions. If you tell them what to think, you deprive them of the privilege of further thinking and likely end the conversation. Many of life’s most difficult questions don’t have easy answers, so don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” or to show your child how to discover the answer. Ask them questions! If you’d like to know more about how to use the Socratic method, read my article entitled “Ask. Don’t Tell.” In my next post, “Top 10 Traits of Critical Thinkers,” I’ll share 10 traits that all critical thinkers share.

Reviewing content to increase understanding is a critical component of a classical education. So, before we start the next homeschooling series on the classical trivium, “Thinking Critically,” here’s a short primer on classical education.

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Western Civilization was built on the classical education model, and the majority of history’s leaders were trained under this method. Classical education dates back to Ancient Israel, Greece, and Rome. Medieval Europeans, especially leaders of the Christian Church, were classically educated as were the founders of the American Republic. During the 19^th century, the U. S. immigration population soared, and the common school movement was born which effectively obliterated classical education in the United States by the beginning of the 20^th century. With the exception of a minute group of Christian home schoolers, our nation’s leaders are now being trained on the public school conveyor-belt which teaches children what to think and not how to think. (See “The World is Waiting” for a detailed chronology of the history of classical education.)

The classical home education renewal movement is still in its infancy, and many variations in practice exist like the classical model of Charlotte Mason, Susan Wise Bauer, and Oliver Van DeMille. In their excitement to embrace a classical home education, many parents jump right in without really thinking about what distinguishes classical education from other viable homeschooling methods. For example, some would tell you that classical languages like Latin are a critical component of a classical education (more on my opinion of this in a later post!), but the content of the classical education is not nearly as important as the methods by which the content is taught. The trivium and quadrivium provide structure for organizing content while Socratic dialogue and inductive reasoning provide the tools by which to understand the content.

A classical Christian home education is not as difficult as many people believe it to be. In fact, when you know your main objectives, classical homeschooling can be extremely freeing and relaxing while still rigorously challenging both parents and children. There are Three Simple but Significant Steps to a Classical Education:

1. Discard the public school paradigm

2. Teach the Skills of the Trivium

a. Learning the Language

b. Thinking Critically

c. Communicating Effectively

3. Supervise the Study of Subjects

Unlike some proponents of classical homeschooling, I do not view the trivium as distinct phases in the child’s life; rather, I see the trivium as three necessary skill sets that should be substantially mastered before moving on to the deeper study of subjects. Think of these three skills as a continuum of increasing competence. The more the child works on the skill, the better the child becomes at the skill. All three skills begin developing at birth but are not mastered for many years. In fact, you are probably still working on these skills just as I am! There does come a day, however, when you know your child is ready to go deeper into subjects, and it is at that point that you can tailor the study of subjects to the individual tastes and interests of the child.

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“Thinking Critically,” step two of “Teach the Skills of the Trivium,” is the topic of the next series.

Socratic Dialogue refers to a method of classical home education that was first recorded in ancient Greece by Plato. In two of his more famous works, The Republic and The Apology, Plato records the conversations between the teacher, Socrates, and a variety of students. Although not immediately apparent, these conversations represented a method of inquiry in which an abstract moral concept such as justice, temperance, or virtue was examined through the process of asking questions. In effect, the master Socrates taught the pupil a concept by asking instead of telling.

So, how do you use Socratic Dialogue in your own home school? Well, the parent decides what concept he or she wants to explore and plans a series of specific questions that will eventually eliminate contradictions and reveal underlying beliefs. The questions are intended to…

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