Today’s Excerpt:

What are you wrong about right now? How do you know?

Sometimes we think we know what is true only to later discover that we were wrong. Because of this, it’s best to be honest about what we don’t know.

This is one of the greatest lessons of Socrates, an ancient Greek wisdom teacher. To learn about Socrates, watch “Great Teachers: Socrates” (2-min video) from NPR.

By asking lots of questions, Socrates helped people see how they were wrong, which sometimes made them feel uncomfortable.

Discuss:

• Have you ever discovered you were wrong about something?
• How does it feel to be wrong?

Because being wrong can feel uncomfortable, we sometimes resist what’s true and become imposters to ourselves. When we’re imposters to ourselves, we stray from what’s true.

One process that leads to truth is critical thinking — the process of bravely examining our views, without fear of being wrong.