1. Conducting Socratic Conversations with students and faculty on the campus of Columbia University (first item below).

2. Conducting the Socrates Salon at the public library in Great Neck, New York -- the longest-running conversation group in the U.S. (see announcement of next session on the home page of this website).

3. Regular column in the Newsletter of the Conversation Cafes (www.conversationcafe.org).

4. Speaking on "The Joy and Power of Conversation" and related topics (www.RonaldGross.com).

5. Consulting and Training on using Conversation/Dialogue strategies to improve performance in organizations, especially for Strategic Planning, Creativity, Decision-Making, and Collaborative Action (www.RonaldGross.com).

For dates and topics of upcoming Conversations, please go to the home page of this website (www.SocratesWay.com), where announcements appear in the right hand column.

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SOCRATIC CONVERSATIONS
at the Gottesman Libraries at Columbia University

The spirit of Socrates is alive and well at the Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College, Columbia University. Socratic Conversations are held twice a month, conducted by Ronald Gross, author of Socrates Way, and co-chair of the University Seminar on Innovation in Education (www.columbiaseminar.org). The program is directed by Jennnifer Govan, assistant director of the Libraries.

The purposes of Socratic Conversations are to:

(1) enrich the intellectual atmosphere on campus,
(2) stimulate thinking about important ideas and issues,
(3) model dialogue and discussion as ways to learn
collaboratively and “construct knowledge”, and
(4) strengthen the sense of community among students.

Topics of these Conversations have included Creativity, Home, Holidays, Happiness, Exams, Traveling, Leadership, Love, Truth, Money, Disabilities, Wisdom, Cheating, Katrina, Beauty, Patriotism, Friendship, Nooses, God, Luck, Media, Status, Rationality, Consumerism, Food, Citizenship, and others.

Conversations have also been held concomitant with major events, conferences, and issues including:

* the launching of the Spike Lee LEVEES Curriculum
* Disabilities Awareness Week
* the International Symposium on African and Diasporic Languages and Education
* the Principal’s Academy
* the Noose incident
* Patriot’s Day (9/11)
* Exam Week
* Global Education Equity Conference
* Homecoming Week
* the Satya Graha Forum, a series of events held concomitant with Philip Glass’ opera about Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence
* Commemorative events on campus on the 40th anniversary of the 1968 student protests
* Global Conversation Week, joining hundreds of groups in 140 countries discussing 10 key questions

More than 300 persons have attended one or more sessions. Attendance has ranged from 6 to 36, averaging 16.

Evaluations completed by participants have averaged an overall rating of 4.87 (on a scale from 1 – 5) over 24 sessions, accompanied by highly enthusiastic comments.

Among the faculty and administrators who have attended sessions including Hope Leichter, Robert McClintock, Janice Robinson, Megan Laverty, Margaret Crocco, Richard Keller, and President Susan Fuhrman.

The Conversations have helped to re-define the Libraries as a place for intellectual and academic discussion, not just a study hall and research center. Students are continually aware of the

Conversations via flyers, large posters, electronic bulletin board, participatory flip-chart, listings, coverage in TC publications, etc.
The Conversations hav impacted on academic learning, as evidenced by several papers written by graduate students, either developing ideas generated in a session (such as “Ableism”), or reflecting on the methodology (such as “Connected Knowing”, a form of Transformative Learning).

Several participants have been impelled to convene conversations of fellow-students; as one of them wrote: “We seem to study so much theory and philosophy, and usually only discuss it within the academic structure of the class (except in limited conversations amongst friends). It is wonderful to have a larger conversation about some things we can’t really touch on in class.”

The impact of the Conversations already extends beyond Teachers College. The session on the Spike Lee curriculum was videotaped for use in training teachers nationwide in using discussion methods. Teachers and administrators from other institutions have visited the Conversations as possible models for adoption, including Adelphi University, New York City public schools, Hunter High School, Ramapo College, All Soul’s Church, and the community-based Café Philos in New York. The Conversations have been covered on ABOUT.com, the New York Times-owned internet portal which is one of the top ten such sites, and by the leading website on Conversation culture, (article on the Nooses session is at http://www.conversationcafe.org/Newsletters/Newsletter_08_Jan/Ron%20column.htm).

A qualitative evaluation of the Project conducted by Prof. Elizabeth Cohn of the Adelphi University School of Nursing, concluded that:

“These Socratic Conversations foster the intellectual growth of participants. They provoke fresh thinking about significant ideas and issues. They exemplify the potential of collaborative learning via dialogue. They enrich the cultural climate at TC.”

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BACKGROUND:

For Socrates and his friends, exhilarating conversations were one of the chief ways to live well. We can enjoy and benefit from such grand talk today. The ways in which Americans by the thousands are doing that have been described in recent articles in TIME and READER'S DIGEST.

We pioneered in creating such "Socratic Conversations," starting in 1983, and currently conduct the longest-running one in the U.S. Most recently we launched one in Rome, Italy. Currenty, we hold an on-going series for students on the campus of Columbia University in New York City, on the second Tuesday of each month -- please contact us if you'd like an invitation.

There are now so many such initiatives that they have their own global network which lists them, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, at http://www.thataway.org/. They include the Conversation Cafes based in Seattle, World Cafe, the Cafe Philo movement, Let's Talk America, Socrates Cafes, the Public Conversations Project, etc.

To join this kind of conversation, you have to be willing to rise above the level of 99% of everyday conversations. "We descend to meet," Thoreau observed sharply. Socrates and his friends saw conversation, dialogue, meeting together, as important and energizing - they rose to the occasion!

Moreover, their dialogues enabled them to clarify the values by which they lived. These conversations stimulated them to express their own opinion, and have it fully heard and responded to by others. Then, they listened fully to alternative views, and were challenged to correct their own lazy or fallacious concepts.

Finally, the process of engaging in such conversations honed their minds, whatever the topic. Today, mental health experts proclaim the necessity for just this kind of interaction for the robust development of our brains, from infancy to old age. "Use It or Lose It" has become a commandment for mental well-being. One of the most readily available and powerful ways to do that is by putting "More Thought in Your Talk."

Today, we can enjoy and benefit from this kind of "grand talk" -- talk that goes beyond the usual trivialities of weather, sports, shopping, TV and movies (though it can include provocative, thought-provoking "takes" on even those familiar topics).