Version II, Somewhat Fictitious
It all started accidentally. I was talking to colleagues and happened to mention an educational experiment I had participated in, in the past. It was related to the School of The Dialogue of Cultures (SDC). The theory of SDC has been developed cooperatively among philosophers, scientists, and educators in the Ukraine and Russia. The foundation of that School’s educational process is dialogue and is comprised of at least two elements. First, a subject is presented to the students not as the firm and absolute truth but as a source of questions. Second, teaching is not done in the traditional manner but organized through dialogue and exploration. These ideas may sound pretty casual to the modern ear, but when specifics were considered the theory and practice of SDC appeared rather unique, effective, and appealing to my colleagues. They were intrigued by experiments I described. For instance, I told a story of first graders enthusiastically debating the human soul with Plato and Aristotle. And there were many examples of the kind. That conversation with colleagues started a chain of events which culminated in another experiment with five Bay Area first graders who had dreamed of becoming famous writers. During after-school activities we agreed to work on “exclusive rights.” Because exclusive rights are important to writers, they and their parents enthusiastically agreed to participate. The experiment, in turn, resulted in this diary, where my thoughts alternate with slightly edited shorthand records of our discussions.
I have not used the debaters’ real names here, but refer to them with letters of the Greek Alphabet. I do so for several reasons. First, the kids and their parents did not want the real names published. Second, I follow a tradition of certain philosophical texts. Third, real participants do not fit exactly in the characters of the book. Finally, as the author it just feels right to me this way.
