Socratic Sonata

    During the winter term of our humanities course - 'Banned Books'  we studied the intricacies of being censored and what it means to be censored.  We learned lot's about how many types of media such as book, comics,movies and songs have been stolen from us through censorship.  We learned about how librarians and teachers are trying to fight to keep banned books on shelves for children to read while many parents choose to complain about these books for reasons like violence, sex, language, sexuality or even touchy concepts such as the holocaust that they fear is too much for their children.  During this time we did two major things to immerse ourselves in this idea of censorship. FIrst we began to read a book thats been banned in many schools across the US - 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury, and visiting Quimby's an Indie bookstore offering offbeat titles, graphic novels & magazines, because graphic novels like the ones Quimby's sells have been a huge target for book banning because the picture supposedly provide children an even more graphic picture of things they belive should be forbidden.  Afterwords we zoomed in to talk with and ask questions to Jeff Trexler, of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, to learn about censorship in comic books.

    One more very crucial thing we did was explore Socrates and read the transcript from his trial in which he was sentenced to die.  Socrates was a philosopher who claimed he knew nothing all the while probing others to try to help them give birth to new ideas.  He would often venture into the agora and ask questions that would provoke thought about important topics like how society was run or about certain ideas that society as a whole accepted without a thought.  He would be put on trial for this and later be found guilty of “impiety” and “corrupting the young”.  The Socratic Method of probing others with questions is dangerous especially to the control that  governments or religious entities have over something commonly acknowledged as fact.  For instance Socrates often challenged the idea of God during a time when the government was a theocracy.  Socrates and his methods were dangerous because he dared to make others think about things they consider fact.

    In the same way Socrates would our class decided to put together our own mock dialogues where one of us would ask questions using the Socratic Method to probe our partners thinking.

Video Transcription:

ER - Oh, hey Gil! What you listening to?

GS - Oh, hey Ethan! I'm listening to:  Music plays

ER -  So Gil you must have some pretty serious opinions on music yourself, huh?

GS - Yeah?

ER - Do you think that music can affect your feelings or your actions even?

GS - I do think music can affect you and it makes everyone feel differently.  I think its meant to be relatable, and genres of music can change how you feel.

ER - So what genre of music affects a person the most positively and negatively then?

GS - Good question.  Songs that have quick tempo and that have overall good beat makeme feel like your i'm in a better mood, and songs that are instrumental often bring my mood down because it seems lonely in a way.

ER - Okay, maybe for you, but what about people who like different types of music? Or feel different ways about the music you like.

GS - I think music can influence people differently based on their background, and how they interpret the songs meaning.

ER - Okay thats fair.  A while back there was a lot of controversy on censored music because people though that certain music would make their kids violent or something, so do you agree that music has some kind of influence on people and their actions?

GS - I dont agree that music can make people do drastic or violent things because I think children will base there actions on their own decisions.

ER - Okay, why?

GS - Kids might enjoy music but they arent motivated by that. Its based on their own actions. Music can make them feel something but they arent controlled by it.

ER - So would kids not be impressionable enough to learn profanity or vulgarity like so many people think?

GS -  Ohhhhh, I didnt really think of that! I guess you're right.

    After completing this mock dialogue I feel like I get a better idea of how Socrates guided another person into seeing things from a new perspective.  It really made me think about what teaching is like today and how Socrates might have tweaked it to fit his methods.  This was a really fun way of exploring it and i would totally do it again. The only thing I would change is to not use the school issued Ipads because the video and sound capabilities were really poor.