How to Be Happier: A Socratic Conversation, Thursday, 10/15, 4-5pm

Inspired by Socrates' famous conversations with his friends in the marketplace of 5th century Athens, we engage in spirited discussions of ideas and issues. Socratic conversations range broadly and probe deeply into the basic challenges of life. They are informed by the latest literature for reference and follow up. While building a sense of community on campus, these meetings enliven the intellectual atmosphere and model dialogue and discussion as modes of inquiry.

How to Be Happier, Thursday, 10/15, 4-5pm

Would you like to explore some new ways to make yourself happier? And to share your own best strategies with others? Through a highly participatory process, we’ll appreciate each others' creativity in this area - and strengthen our own repertoire. Our conversation will be enriched by insights from the burgeoning literature of "Happiness Studies" (Positive Psychology), including principles from the most popular course currently offered at Harvard University.

Come share YOUR thoughts on:

• What have you discovered about making yourself happier, that may be serviceable for others?


• What are the factors which contribute most to making us happy or unhappy? (Innate temperament? Life circumstances? Coping and self-development skills? Or...)


• How good are we, really, at achieving greater happiness, and how can we get better at it?


• Should students be directly taught ways to make themselves happier?

Why Socrates? He engaged in lively, important conversations, exemplifying the values of dialogue and discussion. Socrates is an iconic figure in Education - but he transcends the profession in Western intellectual history.

Do Schools Hurt Children? Thursday, 10/1, 4-5pm

The way we educate millions of American children alienates students from a fundamental pleasure in learning, and that pleasure in learning is essential to real engagement, creativity, intellectual entrepreneurship, and a well lived life, according to Wounded By School, recently authored by Kirsten Olson who spoke at TC last semester and will appear again on October 5th at 7pm.

Many students suffer intensive boredom and daily disengagement, while knowing that school "matters" more than ever. Students and teachers often experience a grinding lack of meaning in their work, combined with intensive labeling, tracking and shrink-wrapping of learners based on cursory tests and poor understanding of many kinds of minds.

Come share YOUR experiences, observations, and thoughts about the ways schools wound, including:

• Wounds of Creativity


• Wounds of Compliance


• Wounds of Rebelliousness


• Wounds That Numb


• Wounds of Underestimation


• Wounds of Perfectionism


• Wounds of the Average

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These highly-participatory conversations with fellow students are moderated by Ronald Gross, author of Socrates' Way and Co-chair of the University Seminar on Innovation in Education.

They are part of a year long series of Socratic Conversations hosted by the Gottesman Libraries. To assure yourself a spot, complete with diet hemlock and cookies, please RSVP to libary@tc.edu.

Next session: Thursday, 11/5; Topic: TBA.

Where: Second Floor Salon