World History · Studio WH-01 · Week 1 — Launch
Socratic Seminar:
Find Your Angle
A real conversation about the four texts — the payoff is a question worth six weeks.
Name the outcome up front so the talk has a target. Everyone leaves with a candidate angle.
Why we're talking
The goal isn't to agree.
It's to find the argument you can't stop thinking about. By the end, you'll name an inquiry angle — your question for the studio.
How this works
- Small groups. One question on the screen at a time.
- Everyone talks. Point to the text — quote a line.
- I rotate, listen, and push. I'm not the answer key.
- Keep a pen out — jot any question that pulls at you.
Seminar norms
- Cite the text. "On line ___, it says…" beats "I feel like…"
- Build on each other. "Adding to what ___ said…"
- Ask more than you answer. A good question > a hot take.
- Disagree with ideas, not people.
- Make room. Pull in a voice we haven't heard.
Low-stakes opener — get every voice in the room once before the hard questions. ~4 min.
Warm-up · everyone answers
Of the four — Hammurabi, Confucius, Pericles, the Melians — whose world would you least want to live in? Why?
Probes: Is a fixed punishment fairer than a judge's mood? What does "an eye for an eye" protect against? Who does this code protect — and who doesn't it?
Text 1 · Hammurabi's Code
"If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out."— Hammurabi's Code
Is "an eye for an eye" a license for revenge — or a limit on it?
Probes: Can you require virtue, or only reward it? Would you rather be ruled by a good person or a good law? What happens when the virtuous ruler dies?
Text 2 · The Analects of Confucius
"Lead them with virtue… and they will have a sense of shame, and moreover will become good."— Confucius, Analects
Can virtue actually be required of a ruler — or is that just naive?
Probes: Who is missing from Pericles' "everyone"? (women, enslaved people, foreigners) Does naming a value make it real? Is he describing Athens or selling it?
Text 3 · Pericles' Funeral Oration
"Our government… favors the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy."— Pericles
Who counts as "the many" — and who is invisible in his speech?
Probes: Is this the same Athens that gave the Funeral Oration? Is honesty about power better or worse than hiding it? Does might make right — or just make outcomes?
Text 4 · The Melian Dialogue
"The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must."— Athenians, Melian Dialogue
Is this a failure of governance — or the honest truth underneath all of it?
The synthesis beat. Let disagreement run. This is where angles start to surface — listen for what students argue hardest about.
Put them in the same room
Law, virtue, democracy, raw power — which one is actually running things when the pressure is on? Which text is most honest about power?
The pivot to angle. Say it plainly: the argument you wanted to fight is the one worth six weeks.
Now make it yours
Which argument made you
want to push back?
That itch — the claim you couldn't let stand, or the one you'd defend to the end — that's your angle.
Turn the itch into a question
Angle sentence stems
"I want to figure out whether…" Athens' democracy was real or a mask.
"I keep coming back to…" whether virtue can be built into a system.
"I disagree that…" 'an eye for an eye' is barbaric — I think it's a limit.
"What none of them admit is…" that power decides in the end.
Land the plane. Everyone writes one angle before they leave — this becomes Part 1 of the Contract.
✍️ Before you leave the circle
Write one inquiry angle you'd actually want to chase for six weeks.
This goes straight into Part 1 of your Contract
Remember
The best angle is arguable.
If we could Google the answer in 30 seconds, dig deeper. A real question has people on both sides.
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