As students read and converse about great texts,
they learn to think deeply, speak thoughtfully,
and respect multiple points of view.
Cynthia Barry
After one of my discussion classes, a 7th grader asked, “What is the point of a discussion class? We don’t have to memorize
anything. We don’t take tests. We just sit
around and talk.” Before I could answer,
another student, a young Russian
émigré, replied, “What is the point?
Only that discussion teaches you how to
live!”
And it does. People trapped in the
Warsaw ghetto during World War II met
together to discuss the few books
remaining to them. Conversation keeps
us human when all else is stripped
away. In more secure times, exchanging
ideas with others can elicit our empa-
thetic imagination. Teaching students to
listen to others and express their own
ideas gives them the resilience and
resourcefulness to handle whatever the
future holds.
From Great Texts—
well after the fall of the Berlin Wall and
who have grown up with the green
movement, interpreted it as an ecological warning.
Students also pondered Descartes’
comment in his Discourse on Method—
that common sense is fairly distributed
among people because everyone believes
he has enough of it. A number of
students somewhat sheepishly admitted
that they thought they had more
common sense than others they knew.
(Who would admit to having less?)
And when we read from The Confessions, a number of students agreed with
St. Augustine that he was right to worry
that the pleasure he found in music
could subvert his reason and undermine
his relationship with God. “Sometimes
music can overshadow what the lyrics
are saying. Then you can’t hear clearly,”
