Milford News | 1928-07-20 | Page 7 | Socratic Method of Workers' Education Productive of Splendid Results

Socratic Method of Workers' Education Productive Pro-ductive of Splendid Results By ARTHUR GLEASON, Economic Authority. . The way a group of grown persons best educate each other is in the mc-thod used by Socrates and his friends. It is the way of endless discussion dis-cussion centering on one subj'ect. It is almost the hardest work in the world, but the results are sometimes amazing. A grown man discover? he is beginning to grow again. Endless discussion about' one subject cannot maintain itself on words. It dies away unless it feeds on know! edge and finally interpretation. It reaches out for facts and then for tbf meaning of them. In modern terms, this Socratic method means a clas of from five to twenty-five, who read- books, listen to talks, and ask ques tions. They take to themselves a like-minded teacher, who is a good fellow, and together they work regularly and hard. This is the hear! of workers' education the class financed on trade-union money, thi teacher a comrade, the method discussion, the. subject the social sciences the aim an understanding of life and the remolding of the scheme of things. Where that dream of a better world is absent adult workers education will fade away in the loneliness and rigor of the effort.