In this mentoring check‑in, Michael Strong reviews Alana’s recent Socratic sessions with her 9‑year‑old mentee C. Alana describes a recent topic—navigation, GPS, and old maps—highlighting the challenge of choosing relatable yet technically accurate questions. Michael points out the tension between asking relatable, human‑centric questions and the need to supply background knowledge when the mentee lacks a knowledge base. They discuss how schools often default to information delivery, whereas TSE emphasizes Socratic dialogue, and why that can fail without sufficient background. Michael probes Alana’s preparation habits, revealing that she tests questions with her brother, watches brief videos (e.g., on fungi), and plans a few days ahead. They also explore the balance between human‑emotional topics (anger, betrayal) and technical subjects, noting that younger mentees may struggle with the latter. Alana shares her personal learning journey, reporting progress in Harvard’s CS50, her slower pace to ensure comprehension, and her appreciation of Python after learning C. The conversation ends with encouragement, an offer to connect Alana with more mentees, and mutual well‑wishes.
Chapters
So first, I want to check in on your mentoring, uh, or your Socratic, uh, questioning with, uh, C. How's that going?
Great. Um, we are not going to be meeting until April 2nd, I think, because their family's on a trip. Um, but it's been going well so far. I think it's I mean, it's for sure going more smoothly than we first started. Um, kind of the same as last time though. I've been trying to, uh, ask him more relatable questions. I don't really know how relatable last week's topic was. I asked him what he thought about navigation and GPS and how people made maps, and I showed him a picture of a really old map versus a new one. Just because I thought that would be interesting. Um, and then we had a good conversation. It flowed okay. I feel like since he wasn't really knowledgeable in that topic, it didn't go so smoothly, or as smoothly as I thought it would be. But I still got replies and answers. Um, and it was a good like 17, 16, 17 minute conversation. So improvement, I think.
Great. Well, I actually think it's very cool that you came up with, um, GPS to navigation and old maps. Um, where did you get that idea?
Um, I don't really know. I guess we just use GPS a lot because we're driving all day, every day.
And when you say—
what?
When you say old maps, how old of maps were you looking at?
Um, I think it was from like the 14th century. I forget, I'm not sure.
And you were kind of comparing just how different it was to navigate via old maps back in the day versus GPS today?
Yeah, because, um, it just wasn't as accurate. So I was asking C about how he thought they made maps and how he thought they first started and how he thought the technology improved.
Did you know something about all these questions?
Um, I knew a little bit, but I honestly was just trying to see what he thought, and maybe I could look stuff up along the way and try and tell him facts that I just learned.
Perfect. And were you looking things up along the way?
Um, here and there. Uh, just, you know, what kinds of technologies are, you know, just— actually, one thing I looked up is that is to recheck my information on satellites, 'cause I did mention how satellites and GPS was kind of interconnected, and I didn't want to get anything wrong. So I just kind of quickly typed up a Google search right there.
Good, good, good. No, it's interesting. So there are interesting tensions, I would say, between relatable on the one hand and background information on the other. And sometimes, you know, with you and with students and with classes, sometimes I think I can ask a question and I quickly realize they don't have enough background information. And so I do have to shift into a role of providing information. And that's totally okay as well. I think, you know, in many schools, there's this, in regular schools, it's mostly information, whereas at TSE, it's mostly Socratic questioning. And I think one of the reasons very often in schools, they think Socratic questioning doesn't work is because on many issues, kids just don't have the background information. And so I would say if there's a knowledge base that's required to understand, you're right, it's interesting to see how he would put together, how he would understand it. And having him like an 8-year-old figure out how GPS works is a big leap. I think having him think about the dramatic difference in navigation between then and now is interesting, or just what it means to navigate. Was he able to think about what it, kind of the process of navigation?
Yeah, being able to go new places and traveling and going, you know, just going from one place to another. Yeah.
And was he— did he have interesting thoughts on how either maps work or GPS works?
Um, he— to be honest, he was just kind of answering the questions. He didn't like input anything otherwise, which is something I'm like having a little bit of trouble with.
Well, yeah, and I think, I do think that it's tricky because, you know, the technicalities, you know, you or I might have to look up. And so he couldn't be expected to get to the technicalities. On the other hand, for me, just going back to experiential and relatable, you know, when I, if we've lived somewhere, we know how to get around. If there's kind of a line of sight where we can see from A to B, then we can get around. But I think of both GPS and maps as really interesting techniques for helping us find out how to go places we've never been. And, um, and that's, that's just interesting, but I, it does, it's, it doesn't surprise me that it was sort of too much for an 8-year-old. When I think of relatable or experiential, I think of things like, I call it the fundamental humanistic things like, again, anger, truth, betrayal, where Even at the age of 8, he's had people lie to him. He's had people cheat him. Not to make it all about the bad stuff, but many, we have stronger emotional reactions typically about those things. Sadness, he might be less eager to talk about sadness, he might. But I think of navigation is intrinsically technical, whereas our own emotions, our own emotional experience, our own life experience, we all have. Does that make sense?
Yes, for sure.
And so, you know, even things like, you know, the airplane— airplane is cool, but, and if he happens to have a knowledge base, then it's— then it works. I'm thinking, um, you're in— are you in STEM class or humanities class at TSE now?
I'm in STEM.
Okay. And there, are there places with which you guide?
Erin.
Great. And are there places where Erin gives you some background information, or you read or watch a video or something before you discuss the thing?
Yeah, we recently did a kind of big project on taxonomies and flora, fauna, fungi, and things like that. And at least for this one part, we watched a brief video on fungi reproduction before we dove into the actual topic.
Got it. And I suspect what she's doing is she's providing you background knowledge. So then when there is a space to discuss, you've got the background knowledge needed to discuss it. Does that sound accurate?
Yes.
So I would say if you're going to do something technical, you might need to kind of prepare with a little bit of background knowledge. So I would say in some ways, you know, there are the kind of humanistic, universal human emotions, that kind of relatable. Or if it's scientific or technical or mathematical, you either want to make sure that he has the background knowledge and/or you want to provide the background knowledge, just because for those sorts of things you definitely need background knowledge. Make sense?
Yeah, it does.
Um, well, good. Uh, in which case, uh, anything else on mentoring or Socratic mentoring of C?
No, I'm just having a really fun time.
Oh, I'm glad you're enjoying it. What do you enjoy about it?
Uh, coming up with new topics. And even though it's like kind of stressful in the moment, what those moments were like, I don't have anything, it's kind of, uh, exhilarating to try and come up with something else while I'm like facing someone who's expecting something to come out of my mouth, I guess. I don't know.
Good, good, good. Um, how much, how, how much in advance do you prepare and what kind of preparation? Do you do—
Usually a couple of days before I ask my brother what he's interested in, or I just try and think about something because I think my brother and Camden are— I mean, C— are about the same age. I think they're both 9.
Yeah.
And even though we live in different places, they both do jiu-jitsu. Logan's— I mean, Logan doesn't have any interest in planes right now, but they could be similar in some ways. So I asked my brother.
Mm-hmm.
And sometimes I just ask him questions that I'm going to ask, see before, like maybe right before the call, just so I have an idea of what he might reply or what I might lead on.
That's good. Test driving the question, so to speak. That's great. Do you have room for another one or two, or are you so busy you really don't have room for another one or two? Socratic mentees?
Oh, I'd love to have more. Okay, for sure.
Okay, very cool. From time to time I run across somebody, I think, hmm, Alana might be just the person for this kid. Um, but I assumed that because, because you spend so much time on jiu-jitsu and then all of your other things, including, you know, school stuff, you'd be too busy. But it sounds like you enjoy it so much you would make time for it.
Absolutely. Yeah, for sure.
Very good. Very good. Just quickly, how is Harvard CS50 coming?
Good. I'm not taking it week by week. I'm going a little slower just so I understand everything. But I'm on week 6, and I'm finally back to Python. So it's a little easier. I recently heard a saying that you have to learn C to appreciate Python. And since I knew Python before C, I'm like really appreciating it right now. So I'm glad I'm on this stage. And yeah.
How does learning C help you appreciate Python?
Because C is a lot— I mean, in my opinion, it's a lot more complicated. And in Python, it's a newer and maybe more sophisticated language. So different people have created it so that you have to do less work in order to achieve a certain goal.
Got it. I learned how to code in C a long time ago, and certainly that sounds accurate. Well, great. And there are what, something like 12 lessons in CS50? Is that right?
I think there's 10. There might be a couple more.
OK, something like that. Great. Well, it's wonderful. I'm so glad you're enjoying the Socratic Conversations with C so much. And I will think of interesting people, interesting other students for you to work with. Because I think it's really great and I love your creativity as you get into it. So, um, always good to see you, Alana. Have a wonderful week.
