Socratic Seminar Reflection #2

Socratic Seminar Reflection #2

The seminar influenced the way I thought about the right for people to have privacy. After having the seminar, I found myself asking many questions relating to this subject. How much privacy is one allowed? At one point does supervision become a violation of privacy. One thing said in the seminar which I hadn’t thought of in depth before was how Big Brother could possibly not be a real person, and that he might just be a figure head of power that had died many years ago, but was still used to influence the minds of others.

I agree with the statement that the proles could defeat the police. I agree with this because the book says the proles overpower the police in numbers. The proles make up 85% of the population and do not have they don't have tele screens, which would allow them to plot and plan without fear of being seen or viewed by the Thought Police. During this Socratic seminar, I did not find any statements that I disagreed with as it seemed as though everyone was in agreement with each other, and most of the discussion was spent using historical examples and evidence from the text to back up the popularly held opinion. In fact, I think that something we should work on is ensuring that there are more "controversial" topics brought up during the seminar in order to provoke meaningful discussion where we can learn from each other, instead of reiterating the same information and points of view that everyone already agrees on. I do have something I would have wanted to say, I would have wanted to give a quote to the group and see there responses to it.

I think the thing that constantly works well throughout the seminars, is the way that our discussion leaders consistently try to get everyone into the discussion. Even if a person wasn't exactly fully prepared, everyone tries to find a way to get them well involved into the discussion. Such as whenever Tyree or Li, don't try as hard as others to insert themselves into the discussion. We all try our hardest to get them involved and to make sure they get their points.

I think the thing that still and will need work on for these seminars is for there to be more question that are somewhat controversial and will spark different opinions, because I feel that at times the people who aren't talking are the people with the contrasting ideas, and I feel that it would be great to hear these ideas.