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The students read many different kinds of texts. All of the
readings are short, generally no more than a page or two. In
the lower grades many of the readings are folk tales from
around the world. These stories are always about one or more
common human ideas or common human experience. For instance, in 3rd grade
the students read a story from Latvia titled
They Share the Work.
What is it about? The story centers on the
activities of planting, harvesting, watching. There is
much else involved |
Venice: A
Regatta on the Grand Canal - Canaletto |
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in those activities - responsibility,
patience, industriousness, expectation, disappointment,
anger, and how different people may have different ideas
about what it means to share. |
As the students progress into the higher grades there are more
readings that are excerpts of great works about ancient
history, civics, and the humanities. As an example, 8th grade
students may read an excerpt from The
Republic, by Plato; an excerpt of
The Prince by
Machiavelli; or a section of Augustine's
Confessions.
There is a single book for each grade that contains all of the
readings for that grade. These books may be purchased at the
Great Books Store. Once there just click on the
appropriate grade level then scroll down to "Socratic
Discussion" to find the book you need.
Here are of some of the authors from whom we derive the texts
we read.
3rd Grade - In addition to the many folk tales the students read some of
Homer, Aesop, Defoe, Montaigne, Augustine, and others.
4th Grade - Folk tales, a part of The Declaration of Independence, and
some of Yeats, Muir, Zeno, Aesop, and others.
5th Grade - Folk tales, Chaucer, Plutarch, Pascal, Feynman, Cezanne, and
others.
6th Grade - Folk tales and Homer, Frost, Augustine, Lucretius, and others.
7th Grade - Excerpts of The Federalist Papers, and texts by da Vinci,
Frederick Douglas, Voltaire, Lincoln, and others.
8th Grade - Folk tales and Emerson, Madison, Hippocrates, Twain, and others.
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