the.com/seminar
A room where one person talks and everyone else prays they aren't called on.
means A small class or meeting where people discuss a topic together — in theory as equals, in practice as hostages to eye contact.
from From German 'Seminar,' borrowed from Latin 'seminarium' meaning 'seed-bed' or 'nursery' — itself from 'semen,' seed. The idea was poetic: a seminar was a plot where ideas were planted and grown. Universities adopted the term for small academic gatherings where students cultivated knowledge under a teacher's eye. The seeds still germinate occasionally; the dread is a more reliable harvest.
- origin
- from Latin seminarium, meaning seed bed
- ideal size
- small enough that silence becomes personal
- true purpose
- making you read the book you skipped
- universal ritual
- someone always asks a question that is actually a speech