Socratic Seminar!

Today, we held our first Socratic Seminar. It was wonderful to hear you all talk, debate, and reflect on four key questions that relate to themes from our novel, THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF MIKE.

Here is a picture of our four questions that we explored:

As I took notes on all of the comments and ideas you shared, I was deeply inspired and I learned a lot from you all. Here are a few ideas--quotes--that came out of your Socratic Seminar today:

"There is no such thing as success--it's not a real thing. But you can have various achievements, and those can make you feel proud."

"Success is reaching your own personal goals."

"There are multiple ways to be intelligent--and those ways can't always be measured by traditional schools."

"Ben Franklin is an interesting example of success: he never really had much schooling, and yet he was a creative genius and invented so much!"

"Success is so often shaped by other people's standards; people are pressured to achieve in certain ways."

"People who have a lot of empathy can often become despondent on behalf of others." 

"You can still have fun and grow a lot without being the best at something."

"Often discouragement ties into failure; what can help is finding a hobby you like--something you believe in that brings you joy and relaxation."

"Society too often values things like beauty and talent, instead of much more important things like honesty."

"Wealth is the most important hing in our society, because it allow people to get good educations."

"More people would rather (deep down) be less popular and have good friends."

"There are a lot of successful people who never went to college."

"Popularity goes too far: consider the book Wonder."

"Success is totally subjective, but society crafts a majority definition."

"People who grow old too often forget what mattered to them in their childhoods."

"Most of us judge by money and intelligence, but that isn't always good."

"I think success is self-pride."

"What can help people who are despondent--like Poppy--is having friends and social connections."

"People who have lived through a lot of bad situations see the world differently."

"Happiness matters the most; happiness is the key to success."

"Past is homeless, but he's happy."

"Failure is an important part of success."

[in response to above comment]: "But failure isn't always good; like, what if you fail at disarming a bomb?"

"Success is doing something that makes you feel more like the person you really want to be."

"Sometimes, success is unintentional."

"Success is about working at something again and again, over a long period of time."

Our word of the day is: OUTLIER, which means: a value far away from the average (think: a person who does something very differently than others, a school or place that is very different than the norm, etc).

For homework tonight, be sure to read Chapters 22 and 23 in THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF MIKE.

Peace!

Mr. R