📋 The Paideia protocol
How a seminar works
A Socratic seminar is a structured, evidence-based discussion of one text — not a debate to win and not a quiz to pass. The device keeps time and rotates the roles; the thinking is entirely yours.
Five steps
- Read the text together
Everyone reads (or re-reads) the short passage. The seminar is about THIS text — every claim comes back to it.
- Open with a real question
The Opener poses a genuine, arguable question — one with no settled answer — and invites someone who hasn’t spoken.
- Rotate the four roles
Every few minutes the roles rotate, so everyone practises opening, tracking, steel-manning, and closing.
- Keep it balanced & grounded
The talk-balance bar makes quiet and dominant voices visible (a balance, never a score); the evidence tally rewards grounding a point in the text.
- Close with a changed mind
Each person names one thing that shifted in their thinking — the point of a seminar isn’t to win, it’s to think better together.
The four roles
- Opener (Ask) — Pose the next question from the text, and invite someone who hasn’t spoken yet.
- Tracker (Track) — Notice who has and hasn’t spoken; gently make room for a quiet voice.
- Steel-manner (Steel) — State the STRONGEST version of the view you disagree with, in good faith, before you reply.
- Closer (Close) — Name the strongest point made so far and one question still open.
Ground rules
- Come back to the text — cite it, don’t just assert.
- Steel-man before you rebut: state the other view at its strongest.
- Make room — invite the quiet voices; don’t crowd the loud ones.
- Disagree with ideas, never with people.
- It’s fine to change your mind. That’s the goal.
Best with a willing group — a homeschool co-op, a book club, a class, or a family at the table. There is no AI here, and nothing is graded.