Socratic Seminar Notes

What we covered and talked about:

• Playing without having to think allows children to develop
• With guidelines and rules, children start to follow them and don't go beyond that
• Not just kids, but adults too can develop by free-playing
• It becomes harder for adults since they develop ego and self-consciousness
• Free-plays connects with creativity since there are no boundaries
• School takes away free-play and instead tells students to learn in strict and rigid ways
• Students are fed-up with school and don't like to "learn" since it reminds them of school
• They start to lose the passion to "learn" whether it be school-related or personal-interest

How can these concepts enhance your learning as you arrive at a moment when grades no longer matter?

     These concepts can enhance our learning by allowing us to have passion in what we love to do instead of following the institution's guidelines in doing it it's way. Later on in our lives, the A's we learned don't really matter since it doesn't guarantee that we're going to get a good job. It's the passion we possess that enables us to seek what we want to learn about which leads to our career in life.

How can these concepts enhance your ability to master content for the AP exam and other hurdles you have yet to leap?

     Just because the article about "play" stated that "free-play" is beneficial in all ways for an individual, I'm not going to just do things I personally like to do since they are irrelevent to the AP Test. Instead, I'm going to develop my interest in the AP Exam, spend some time reviewing it, and ask questions to Dr. Preston about the content of the exam.

How can you use these concepts to collaborate with and inspire others, to improve the information exchange and overall value of your learning network?

    By utilizing these concepts, we can all benefit by encouraging others and reminding them that we are not doing this for the school, but for our own purpose in learning. However, I realized that not many people ACTUALLY do this and simply state that they will and forget about it. We all need to constantly remind ourselves about this untiil the AP Exam so that we won't lose focus.