Small group educational meetings focused on discussion and research of a particular topic under guidance of an expert.
From Latin 'seminarium' meaning 'seedbed, nursery', from 'semen' (seed). Originally used for theological schools, the metaphor of intellectual seeds being planted and cultivated extended to academic education generally.
The word 'seminar' beautifully preserves the agricultural metaphor of education as cultivation - it literally means 'seedbed'. This reveals how our ancestors understood learning as an organic process of planting ideas that would grow in students' minds through discussion and nurturing.
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