On June 5 we celebrate the birthday of one of the greatest philosophers and teachers in the history of the world: Socrates. This date is accepted as his birthday even though no one is exactly sure even of the year he was born (probably around 469 B.C.), or much else about him for that matter. You see, not a single scrap remains of anything that Socrates wrote himself, and so everything we know about him and his teachings we have learned from the writings left by his pupils - principally Plato - and others who knew him.
Now, you may be wondering what Socrates, or philosophy in general, has to do with family learning, inasmuch as I have proclaimed all along that these home activities require no advanced education or specialized training of any kind.Well, first let me suggest that philosophy should not be thought of as an "educated" pursuit. Instead, as another great teacher, Mortimer Adler, often observes, "Philosophy is everybody's business." All people - and this includes children - have the power to form and re-form and expand and clarify their beliefs about standards of goodness and principles of justice.
So, we as parents can accustom our children to "doing" philosophy for themselves by encouraging them to think about and to talk about the rightness or wrongness of the actions taken by a character from a story, a television show or even from real life. Their opinions may not mirror our own, but we must nurture their ability to make such judgments for themselves and to look for the universal, guiding principles behind those judgments. We can accustom them to thinking about and using words like "liberty" and "happiness" and "virtue" in our homes before society browbeats them into believingthat the meaning behind all such words depends upon one's race or sex or situation.
There is another lesson we can take from Socrates and apply to the learning that goes on in our homes. Socrates knew that questions are more important than answers; indeed, Socrates almost never gave his students any answers at all. What he did, and what we call the "Socratic method" today, was to make each student use his own powers of reason to uncover an answer for himself, instead of just having it supplied by Socrates. His "answers" were questions themselves, which caused each student to see the problem in a new light and to arrive at a new understanding.
This is "discovery learning" at its best, for when the student - no matter whether it is a child or an adult - takes an active part in uncovering the solution to a problem, then that solution is much more meaningful and much more memorable. Socratic questions can be valuable guides to the learning and understanding of every subject in the curriculum, but they are especially appropriate for the teaching of science, and this is the approach that Michael Shermer takes in a very useful family resource titled "Teach Your Child Science: Making Science Fun for the Both of You."
It may be difficult to resist the urge to simply supply the answers your children seek to science or math problems or even to questions of spelling or capitalization. But try whenever possible to provide another circumstance or situation from which they can uncover the principle that will answer their original question themselves.
The Latin word "educere" meant "to lead out," and is the root of our verb "educe," which means "to bring forth or elicit." I like to think of "educere" as being the root for our word "educate," as well. It's not, but I still like to think that that's what real education is all about.
Dr. William F. Russell's books for parents and children include "Clas-sics to Read Aloud to Your Children" and "Classic Myths to Read Aloud." Send your questions and comments to him at Family Learning, 37 W 222, Route 64, Suite 203, St. Charles, IL 60175-1000.