“The Steps it Takes to Find Truth”

If students were tired after a busy Wednesday night, that didn’t slow them down at this morning’s class, where they worked hard at the challenging task of demonstrating Euclidean Propositions 13 and 15. “We powered through!” a prefect reports. “We are learning how important it is not to jump to conclusions and to see the steps it takes to find truth. Often things that seem simple are hard to understand.”

After Mass came lunch in St Joseph Commons, where some 200 voices joined in a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday,” sung for three students — Grace of Vista, California; Elise of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Athena of Tucson, Arizona. (Sorry, but our efforts to capture the celebration on video failed!)

At the afternoon class — the last one on Boethius — students discussed providence, free will, and fate, as well as how fortune and chance are human perceptions of the way God governs the universe. “We talked about simple and conditional necessity in relation to divine foreknowledge,” a prefect explains. “We also discussed how our perception of God is limited by time, and that God is eternal, so He knows things as they happen, not in the future.”

Students report that, in the 10 days since their first class in the program, they have accustomed to the Discussion Method, and there has been a dramatic shift in classroom dynamics. “At the beginning of the program, there were only half a dozen people really contributing to the discussion, plus a handful of others on the fringes. Most of the students were really quiet,” one student observes. “But now nearly everyone is contributing and asking questions.”

The tutors, likewise, have noted the growth, and they have praised the quality of the classroom discussions. One tutor remarked that a conversation about Euclid led him to think of one of the propositions in an entirely new way. Another said that this year’s students seem as though they are already members of the Freshman Class, so well have they adapted to the College’s classical curriculum and pedagogy.

With the day’s classes behind them, the students are, as of this writing, now enjoying their afternoon recreation time, which features not only the return of the giant slip-n-slide, but also a students v. prefects soccer match. It’s hard to believe, but we have reached the penultimate day of the program, with the last two classes and the farewell banquet set for tomorrow!