It is especially good for the more verbal students who are not likely or not able to write their ideas effectively. It has been a major stressor for other students who are less verbally competent, but usually do well on written assignments. I have found the Paideia to be an incredibly democratizing procedure. It is important to stress that the Paideia is an anti-authoritarian procedure. There is no one in charge of the learning in the usual sense, there is only the person who reminds the participants of the rules.
Students feel that they are able to really speak and think out loud.
I have also been able to help students to recognize bias in documents, which has been a great challenge in the past. Each seminar is begun by asking students to identify the biases in the document. But as the year has gone on, they have found conservative, liberal , Euro-centric, or nationalistic bias. This has made these budding citizens more nimble in the rhetoric of democracy. The Paideia Seminar has specific rules and procedures listed below.