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The Paideia Seminar
ACTIVE THINKING THROUGH DIALOGUE
What Is The Paideia Philosophy? What is The Paideia Seminar?
Paideia is the Greek word for the proper The National Paideia Center defines the
upbringing of children. Paideia is a teaching Seminar as a collaborative, intellectual dialogue
philosophy proposed by Mortimer Adler and facilitated with open-ended questions about a
based on the belief that all children can learn text. The purpose of the seminar is to increase
and that all children are entitled to the best understanding of the textual ideas and values as
education possible. well as understanding
of the self and others.
What is the
responsibility of each The Paideia Seminar
seminar participant? at HCCS
Seminar participants Students at HCCS
sit in a circle with the have been
facilitator and are participating in
expected to listen, seminars since the
speak, think, refer to school’s inception. All
the text, and address grades, K – 8, have
others respectfully. been participating in
seminars, usually as a
culminating activity after a unit of study, once a
Principles of the Paideia Program month. This year, as part of our efforts to
increase vigor in our classrooms, seminars will
*Schooling at its best is preparation for be conducted twice a month.
becoming generally educated in the course of a
whole lifetime, and that schools should be Students at HCCS learn how to set individual
judged on how well they provide such goals for themselves as seminar participants.
preparation. Students are also asked to reflect on their
seminar performance, giving them the
*The three types of teaching that should occur opportunity to improve themselves in upcoming
in our schools are didactic teaching of subject seminars.
matter, coaching, and Socratic questioning in
seminar discussions. The Paideia Seminar, and its intellectual rigor
paves the road for college and career readiness.
