What do we know about Socrates and the teaching method that, having taken his name, has become widely used from kindergarten through postgraduate seminars? The practitioners employing so-called Socratic methods include vastly different styles, the author says, noting that "we may be mistaking common phrasing for common practice." The differences result from a fractured history in which educators put Socrates to work for their own purposes. Each claimed classical antiquity as their own, justifying shifts in practice by leaning on the legitimacy of the ancient past. What does it mean for the classroom today and tomorrow?