California
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July 28, 2023
Never mind Thursday’s late-night serenade, students on the California High School Summer Program have proven themselves indefatigable, with a good number rising at 5:00 this morning for a sunrise hike!
Unwilling to let the Southern California foothills enclosing campus go unexplored, a large group of programmers cajoled their prefects to take them to the Los Padres National Forest’s famous Punch Bowls, a series of natural ponds fed by the Santa Paula Creek. The hikers left at the crack of dawn with makeshift staves in hand, navigating gnarled roots and winding paths on their way into the mountains. When they finally arrived at the ponds, a number of students — not to mention a few prefects! — jumped right into the chilly freshwater before the six-mile trek back to campus.
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In their morning classes, students presented their last three theorems of the Summer Program, concluding with the elegant Book I, Proposition 32, in which Euclid demonstrates that the interior angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles — a cornerstone principle of classical geometry. “It was really cool!” said programmer Benny, who especially enjoyed contemplating geometric truths that most high schools only investigate using algebra.
As students made their way to their final class, they passed a group of prefects in the heart of the academic quadrangle who beckoned them to join them in a singalong of rousing spirituals and Irish ballads. It is traditional for students at the College to sing before their last exam of finals week. The programmers may not have an exam this afternoon, but finishing the academic circuit of the Summer Program is a milestone no less worthy of song!
Photo: Last Class Celebration
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Today’s afternoon class considered Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Students wrestled with the play’s intricate moral complexity, puzzling especially over Macbeth’s moral devolution at the hands of Lady Macbeth. Some students even noted resonances between this last reading of the program and last week’s Oedipus Rex and Antigone: Are Shakespeare’s characters similarly subject to the whims of fate, like those in Sophocles, or not?
With a fun, full afternoon still to come, students may not yet feel the bittersweetness of their final hours at Thomas Aquinas College. Come back to the Summer Program Blog Saturday morning for photos from tonight’s formal banquet and dance!
