The Montfort Academy

Participating in "The Great Conversation"

Mortimer Adler, renowned professor of the classics at Columbia University and the University of Chicago , once said, "The great conversation is the heart and soul of Great Books of the Western World. If one were asked about the paramount service that this set performs for the readers, the answer would be: to get them engaged in the great conversation--to enable them to take part in its give and take."

At The Montfort Academy, students begin to participate in this Great Conversation. Our Great Books Program places an emphasis on requiring students to read not only major literary works, but also the writings of the "masters" - those men and women whose contributions to their respective fields advanced civilization and established and enriched culture throughout the ages.

"A Return to the Classics" is an authoritative article on the Great Books approach to learning and why many believe it is the foundation for excellence in education and the impetus for a better society.

One way of understanding what the Socratic method is is to contrast it with its complement, the lecture method of teaching:

In the lecture method, the teacher provides the student a chain of reasoning or facts to be memorized and learned. In the Socratic method, the teacher brings out the implicit knowledge that the student already possesses by engaging him in a conversation, guiding him by carefully posed questions to perceive the logic of an argument or the reason behind a fact.

By using these two methods together--lecture and Socratic--the teacher is most effective; for he or she not only provides the student with an abundance of knowledge from his own storehouse, but enables the student to grasp the deeper principles of that knowledge, that is, to think for himself.

"What is the Socratic Method?" is a recent article on the subject and its benefits.