Lent 2025
“At that time, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights and afterwards was hungry.”
— Matthew 4:11
Dear friend,
A small firestorm erupted in academic circles last fall when The Atlantic published The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books — a cri de coeur about how low standards, a mercenary approach to education, and ubiquitous screens have sapped Ivy Leaguers and others of their curiosity and attention spans.
Having taught students at Thomas Aquinas College for 23 years, I found one quote in the story particularly alarming.
It was a complaint from a veteran professor of literature at Berkeley. At one time, she expected her students to read 200 pages per week. These days, she assigns half that amount. Whereas her students once read The Iliad in full, they now read only excerpts.
“It’s not like I can say, ‘Okay, over the next three weeks, I expect you to read The Iliad,’” the professor lamented, “because they’re not going to do it.”
I don’t know what’s more disheartening about that quote: that the students gave up on their education, or that their professor gave up on them.
In fairness to this poor professor, the article is full of similar tales of woe at legacy institutions across the country. The problem is hardly unique to her or to Berkeley, but watering down the curriculum is not the approach we take at Thomas Aquinas College.
As a point of contrast, at the College we ask all of our students to read The Iliad, in its entirety. They are expected to have completed it by the time they arrive for their very first Freshman Seminar.
Over the course of that first year, they go on to read many other Great Books, including the Odyssey, the Republic, Euclid’s Elements, all of Holy Scripture, and works by Aristotle, Archimedes, Pascal, and Mendel — to name just a few.
That, to be clear, is just Freshman Year. Suffice it to say, unlike their Ivy League peers, TAC students can read books.
So, what’s the difference between our students and those at the legacy schools?
Well, for starters, here, standards remain high. So, unlike at Harvard, where nearly 80 percent of grades are an A of some sort, at TAC, the only way to succeed is to do the work.
Here, rather than taking a mercenary approach, we value education for its own sake. If you slack off, you are cheating yourself of a once-in-lifetime opportunity. And if you make a habit of cutting classes, you will be asked to leave.
Here, the difference may also lie in the fact that — unlike at the legacy institutions — we have not spent the last 50 years sneering at the Western canon. Our students take these works and their authors seriously because the College takes them seriously.
Here, screens aren’t ubiquitous. Phones and internet access are severely limited, so students can focus their energies on their studies, their friendships, and their faith — free from the distractions of the world.
At Thomas Aquinas College, we foster a culture of solitude and sacrifice.
And that brings us to Lent.
Fresh off of His baptism and “full of the Holy Spirit” (Lk. 4:1), Our Lord entered the wilderness to do battle with the devil, that Christ “might be our Mediator,” as St. Augustine put it, “in overcoming temptations, not only by helping us, but also by giving us an example.”
How did Jesus prepare for this trial? By leaving society for 40 days and putting all distractions behind Him, so that He could focus on nothing but the Father.
In some small measure, this is the sort of preparation the College strives to provide its students when it asks them to leave the world behind for four years, to put away their phones, and to turn off the internet. It’s a preparation for the trial they will face upon graduating — to survive, prosper, and lead in an age that’s lost its moorings and offers no shortage of its own temptations.
We would be selling our students short if we asked anything less of them.
So, yes, TAC students read books, all the way through, even long ones, difficult ones, ancient ones, and ones that challenge their assumptions and presuppositions.
Unlike their peers at America’s once-elite legacy colleges, TAC students come seeking a four-year retreat from the world’s distractions. They know it will be joyful, but they also know it will be hard, as anything worth achieving always is.
At one time, all of the country’s top colleges understood this. Today, Thomas Aquinas College stands all but alone.
By resisting the trends and fads that have eviscerated American higher education, by upholding high standards and the Western intellectual tradition, the College is preserving what is true, good, and beautiful for the next generation.
If you agree that this is the sort of education that the leaders of tomorrow need — an education that expects their best and demands their all — I ask you to include Thomas Aquinas College in your Lenten almsgiving.
May God bless you and your family this Lent.
Sincerely,
John J. Goyette
Tutor and Vice President for Advancement
PS — Just as our program of Catholic liberal education requires our students’ effort and sacrifice, it depends upon the support of those who value it. Please give as generously as you can.