If Socrates Had Been A Parent . . .  a synthesis of the essential rudiments of the formation of virtue and the development of critical thinking in children.  It provides parent and teacher with a practical and effective educational approach to individual virtues as the child develops over time.  Parents, teachers and students come to clearly understanding the meaning of each virtue and see practical examples of how they are lived in the home, in the school and in the Church.

A major difficulty for good parents who work hard to live and teach a virtuous life is how to determine that the child has integrated what they have learned and holds it as their own.  It is common for parents to speak of their child in reference to the various principles and values which they, as parents, hold.  But when questioned whether they know their child to be embracing these same values, their answer usually will be, “Well, that’s what we told him.”  If further questioned on how the child responded, the parents frequently will say, “He listened.”  So then what, exactly, does the child know?  “We don’t know.”

Unless the child expresses the idea in his own words, or unless he performs some action that signals his understanding of the principle, it is impossible to know whether or not it has been embraced.  For that reason, the Socratic Method is particularly helpful in guiding children towards the virtues.

The Socratic Method can be defined as a dialectic technique in which the educator avoids providing information directly, but instead offers a sequence of questions, which prompts the student either to arrive either at the desired truth or at a deeper awareness of the limits of his knowledge. 

 Such a method is especially helpful when educating children in those truths which are discovered within the realm of the spirit—things we only understand by the experience of their effects.  It is an area where many are led astray, but it is also an area where erroneous reasoning is exposed without difficulty when properly questioned.  Therefore, it is most effective in the education of the virtues, which are, again, matters inherent to Natural Law and assuming of the soul.