Can you really use Socratic teaching with a kindergartener? It is one of the most common questions we hear from parents interested in the St. Raphael School Liberal Arts Level 1 course. Many families are drawn to the classical, literature-based approach described on our website, and especially to the Socratic method of teaching. But for most, the idea of applying these techniques at the very beginning of a young child’s education feels foreign. They can imagine how it might work with a student in high school, perhaps in a lively Socratic seminar on Shakespeare. But a Socratic discussion with a five-year-old?
We believe the answer is yes, and that the habits formed in those first conversations are the very ones that carry a student all the way to the seminar table in upper school. Socratic teaching is not a technique reserved for older students. It is a way of learning that can grow with a child at every age.
What Is the Socratic Method of Teaching?
The Socratic method of teaching is a way of learning through guided questions. Rather than simply delivering answers, the teacher asks a sequence of questions that help students examine an idea, test their assumptions, and reason their way toward the truth. It is named for Socrates, who taught this way in ancient Athens.
It is important that we understand exactly what is meant by the “Socratic method.” Wikipedia defines it as “a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions.” The method takes its name from Socrates, the philosopher of fifth-century Athens who wrote nothing himself but spent his life in conversation in the marketplace. We know him through the dialogues of his student Plato, where he patiently questions generals about courage, poets about inspiration, and young men about justice and friendship. The Greeks had a word for his way of testing an idea through questions: elenchus.
Some people are most familiar with the “argumentative” part of that definition. For one mother we spoke with, the term brought back stressful memories of law school and of being driven to tears by the pressure of being singled out by the professor. At Scholé Academy, we focus on the second part of the definition: asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions.
It helps to set the Socratic approach to teaching beside its more familiar partner. Didactic teaching delivers information: the teacher explains, and the student receives. Socratic teaching draws understanding out: the teacher asks, and the student discovers. A good classical education needs both. There are times for a clear lecture and for memorizing a catechism, a times table, or a Latin chant. But the didactic and the Socratic belong together, and it is the Socratic dialogue that turns information a child has received into understanding a child truly owns.
Socrates was famously willing to confess his own ignorance. The so-called Socratic paradox, drawn from Plato’s Apology, that the wise man is the one who knows that he does not know, is not a counsel of despair. It is an invitation to humility and wonder, which are exactly the dispositions we hope to cultivate in our children.
Socratic Questioning Begins at Home
Many parents and teachers notice a lack of critical thinking skills in children today. The good news is that this approach can be cultivated at home, long before a child sits in a classroom. Instead of telling a child exactly how to complete a task, chore, or assignment, a parent can simply ask, “What do you think you should do?” Resisting the urge to itemize a how-to list, and instead asking children to think through how they might approach their work, fosters the habits of Socratic questioning in the home. It is an effective teaching tool for everything from washing the dishes to completing an academic assignment.
These are the places where parents can practice the Socratic method of questioning: not only in an academic setting, but simply in teaching independent thought. Children’s minds are often so conditioned to answer a question only when they are 100% sure of the answer, and to attempt a task only when they are 100% sure of how to proceed, that they find it hard to function without those certainties.
Over time, a Socratic environment takes root in the home. Children who have been asked “What do you think?” for years learn to pause and consider, and a conversation follows. What begins with thinking through simple tasks grows into the ability to answer questions that require forming an opinion or weighing and measuring information.
Why Children Fear the Wrong Answer
Of course, there are many circumstances in a person’s life that can give them a fear of error, but it is often reinforced in school. It can feel humiliating to give the wrong answer when called upon in class. A child is often deemed “smart” when he or she takes tests well and earns good grades. The modern, large-scale schooling system has struggled to teach and measure the less tangible qualities of a good student (and, we would argue, of a flourishing adult): the ability to question, to think for oneself, and to reach one’s own conclusions.
This is one reason we speak of scholé, the Greek word for the restful, unhurried leisure in which true learning happens. A child who is anxious about being wrong is not at rest. A child who knows that his ideas will be welcomed, examined, and gently guided toward the truth is free to think.
Socratic Teaching in Kindergarten and the Early Years
It is very much the same when we bring Socratic teaching to a kindergarten-aged child (or younger!). Very young children have, we hope, not yet developed a fear of failure. All we have to do to prepare them to be excellent Socratic students is to protect that fearlessness. We focus so much on imparting information to very young children. They memorize shapes and numbers and the alphabet long before these things hold real meaning for them, and we are constantly correcting them when they are wrong. Instead, we can focus our efforts on encouraging curiosity, inviting them to hold their own opinions and ideas, to ask questions, and to think through solutions rather than simply receiving information.
Like most children that age, a two-year-old asks questions constantly. “What is this?” is a favorite. Even at this age, parents can use the Socratic method. Rather than always giving the answer right away, a parent might reply with a question of their own: “Hmm, what do you see?” Together they can talk about the color, texture, smell, and possible uses, sharing ideas back and forth before the parent eventually leads the child to the actual answer. In an exchange like this, the conversation is as valuable as the answer, if not more so. The child has had the chance to examine the object with an open mind and to consider many possibilities. Most importantly, the child has shared ideas, had them taken seriously, and done so without fear of being judged right or wrong.
We do the very same thing in the St. Raphael School Liberal Arts Level 1. The most valuable portions of the class are the opportunities students have to share their own ideas and pose questions. With these very young students, it can be challenging for a teacher to help them walk their way to the right answer. But it is so rewarding! In one memorable class, students were asked which animals wool can come from. Among the first suggestions were bears and skunks! It is hard not to chuckle at the thought of the poor “skunk-wool farmers” trying to harvest their wool. But accepting that suggestion warmly, and appreciating the creativity and independent thought behind it, is what lays the foundation for thinking through harder questions without fear in the years to come. (For more on why wonder comes first, see Wonder and Piety as the Basis of a Liberal Arts Education.)
Socratic Questioning Examples for Every Age
Socratic questioning is not one kind of question but a family of them. Educators often describe six types: questions that clarify (“What do you mean by that?”), questions that probe assumptions (“What are we taking for granted?”), questions that ask for evidence (“How do you know?”), questions that consider other viewpoints (“How might someone disagree?”), questions that explore consequences (“If that is true, what follows?”), and questions about the question itself (“Why do you think this question matters?”). The same family of questions simply matures as the child does.
Lower school (kindergarten through grade 4). Young children learn best through wonder and the senses. Good questions are concrete and playful:
- What do you notice? What else do you see?
- Why do you think the little red hen did all the work herself?
- Was it kind of Goldilocks to go into the bears’ house? Why or why not?
- How could we find out if you are right?
Middle school (grades 5 through 8). As students begin to love argument (and they do!), questions can ask for reasons and test ideas:
- What is your evidence from the story?
- Was Edmund a traitor, or was he deceived? Can he be both?
- If everyone acted the way this character did, what would happen?
- What would someone who disagrees with you say?
Asking a student to give reasons is a habit worth building early, as our post Justify Your Answer explores.
Upper school (grades 9 through 12). Older students are ready for questions of meaning, virtue, and truth, and for the sustained Socratic argument of a true seminar:
- Is it ever right to break a law? How would Antigone answer? How would Creon?
- Are Romeo and Juliet victims of fate, of their families, or of their own haste?
- What does Gatsby’s longing for the past tell us about the American dream, and about the human heart?
- What does Socrates mean when he says the unexamined life is not worth living? Do you agree?
Scholé Academy’s live, online classes are kept small so that every student is heard. If you would like to see where your child might fit, browse the course catalog by grade and subject.
What Is a Socratic Seminar?
A Socratic seminar is a structured conversation about a shared text. Rather than a teacher delivering a lecture, students sit together (often in a circle) and discuss an open-ended question, supporting their ideas with the words of the book. The teacher’s role is to ask, to listen, and to guide, not to supply the answers. The goal is to understand the text, and one another, more deeply, rather than to win a debate. Our instructors have written about this spirit in Debate and Discussion: An Invitation to Walk in Humility.
Some teachers use a “fishbowl” format, in which an inner circle of students discusses while an outer circle listens and takes notes, and then the circles trade places. In an online classroom, the same spirit applies: everyone has read the text, everyone has a voice, and every claim returns to the page.
If you would like to run a Socratic seminar at home or in your co-op, a few simple practices go a long way:
- Choose a text worth discussing. Fables and picture books for little ones; myths, novels, and Scripture for older students; the great books for high schoolers.
- Prepare one genuinely open question. A good seminar question has more than one defensible answer and cannot be settled by looking up a fact.
- Ask students to return to the text. “Where do you see that in the story?” keeps the conversation grounded.
- Let silence work. Resist the urge to fill every pause. Thinking takes time.
- Close with reflection. Ask, “What did you hear today that changed your thinking?”
These are the same habits we nurture with our youngest students. The kindergartener who learns to say “I think the wool might come from a skunk, because…” is practicing, in seed form, the very skills a high schooler will need at the seminar table.
Socratic Dialogue in the Classical Christian Tradition
Socratic dialogue has a long and honored place in the classical tradition, and Christian teachers have long recognized its value. Our Lord himself was a master of the question. “Who do you say that I am?” “Which of these three proved to be a neighbor?” His questions did not simply transmit information. They invited His hearers to look, to reason, and to see the truth for themselves. In the same spirit, classical Christian education asks questions not to unsettle a child’s faith but to help a child come to love what is true, good, and beautiful.
This is why Socratic teaching sits so naturally within a classical curriculum. In the early years, it nurtures wonder. In the middle years, it trains reasoning and logic. In the upper years, it flowers into the eloquent, thoughtful conversation of rhetoric. At every stage, it treats a child not as a container to be filled but as a person to be formed.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Socratic Method
What is the Socratic method in simple terms?
It is teaching by asking good questions. Instead of handing students the answer, the teacher asks questions that lead them to look closely, give reasons, and discover the answer for themselves.
At what age can children begin Socratic learning?
Much earlier than most parents expect. Even a two- or three-year-old can be asked, “What do you notice?” The questions simply grow with the child, from wonder in the early years to reasoning in middle school and sustained discussion in high school.
What is the difference between a Socratic seminar and a debate?
A debate has sides and a winner. A Socratic seminar has a shared text and a shared goal: to understand it more truly. Students build on one another’s ideas, ask questions, and return again and again to the words on the page.
Can parents use the Socratic method at home?
Yes, and it is one of the best places to begin. Ask “What do you think?” before giving an answer, read good books aloud and talk about them, and let a little silence do its work while a child thinks.
How is the Socratic method used in classical Christian education?
It serves the larger goal of forming wisdom and virtue. Questions help students understand what they have learned, test it against what is true, and grow in the humility and wonder that make a lifelong learner.
Forming Lifelong Learners and Thinkers
If we focus on nurturing the whole person, and ensure that even our littlest children are comfortable with discussion and the sharing of ideas, we give them the skills they need to flourish as students and as lifelong learners and thinkers. This, we believe, should be the intent and goal of true education.
At Scholé Academy, live, online classes are built around exactly this kind of conversation, from the first questions of our lower school courses to the discussions of middle school and the Socratic seminars of upper school. If you would like your child to learn in a classroom where questions are welcome and every voice is heard, we invite you to explore our courses or learn more about the St. Raphael School. Scholé Academy is part of Classical Academic Press, and teachers who want to grow in this way of teaching will find courses on it at ClassicalU.
