The seminar experience is the capstone of the trivium. The seminar is the time when the reader puts what he has read into action and becomes transformed by the books. It’s the face of the anvil. We believe readers will join you for the accountability but stay for the seminar experience.
Ensuring the quality of the seminar experience is the biggest challenge, and our most important task. The purpose of this document is to communicate our philosophy, expectations, and standards.
Preparation:
- The Seminar is based on the “Shared Inquiry” model.
We are just as interested in “Getting to the bottom of the book” as the readers are. We ask questions because we want to hear the answers for ourselves. The questions we ask the readers are designed to probe and clarify.
We don’t claim any authority in terms of the subject matter in discussion. We only have more experience. The Great Books Foundation says, “In Shared Inquiry discussion, each participant engages in an active search for the meaning of a work that everyone in the group has read. With the energy and encouragement of the group, participants articulate and develop their ideas, support their assertions with evidence from the text, and consider different plausible meanings.”
Seminar leaders are participants. The readers look to us for questions, not answers.
- The Seminar leader is the “First among equals.”
Again, in the shared inquiry model, we are there to show the way. The way is to questions. We are there to embody the process. We lead by showing how it’s done. What we have to say is no more important than what the readers have to say. We listen carefully. We probe with questions in order to help the reader clarify his own thoughts and to learn to communicate more effectively.
A dogmatic seminar leader will model dogmatism to the participants. We want to be open, questioning, willing to entertain different points of view, but capable of making reasoned judgments based on evidence. We want to be the sort of people that we want our members to be.
- We lead by questioning.
Questions are the foundation of our method. The Socratic Method. We use questions to drive careful thought. We ask questions that are:
- Interpretative
These questions as the reader to state their own take on the readings
- Evaluative
These questions ask the reader to determine the impact, relevance, or scope of the readings.
- Clarifying
Clarifying questions ask the readers to elaborate, simplify, reword, or otherwise make either their own point, or the author’s point in a better, clearer way.
Leader’s Guides are tools to help the questioning to happen. They are not prescriptive in any way. One may ask questions somewhat like those in the guides, or not at all, but one must ask questions and never let the seminar pause.
- We listen VERY carefully
We demonstrate that we listen by addressing that which is brought up by the participants. “So you’re saying. . . .” “That’s interesting. Have you considered this?”
- We are hosts, and as such we extend hospitality to our readers.
Our new clients typically don’t know what to expect from the seminar. They are often anxious and nervous about participating. We help them by embodying the Great Books process. We are reading along with them. We are doing the work with them. We show our enthusiasm for the work. We laugh and joke. We have fun. We want the readers to have fun as well. We know that exhibiting a spirit of friendship can cover over many errors in execution.
Adler says that the seminars are an avocation for our members, not a vocation. It’s not their job. We must be unfailingly polite and kind so as not to give them an excuse to leave us. They need what we have to offer. Don’t put up unreasonable obstacles to them.
We also know these books and ideas are important and serious. We delve into areas in the text that we don’t understand. We don’t claim authority. We ourselves inquire. We ask questions for our own sake. In doing so, we lead the way.
Early in the process, the readers don’t know how to read analytically or syntopically. The first seminars are the time when the benefits of careful reading are demonstrated to our clients.
- A few more points
- We never lie about matters of fact. It is ok to lie to drive the discussion.
- Try to draw discussion back to the text when possible.
- You cannot be exhaustive. That’s ok.
- You’ll never finish a seminar, you’ll have to abandon discussion because of time.
- Be polite, our readers are trusting you with their minds.
- Presume our readers are good and noble people. They are.
- Take our readers seriously.
- If they “don’t get it” maybe they’ve gotten something else. Find out what that is.
- Make this fun.
