I’m sick. My company doesn’t offer sick days until you’ve been there 90 days, so every time the clock ticks I lose money. This is an issue that I surely will bring up with my bosses. But being sick did give me the oppotunity to sleep in and watch The Colbert Report.
Three cheers for Georgia for offering Bible classes in the public schools. So long as these classes are taught as academic classes, not Bible study, I’m all for it. My mother is always complaining about how little her students know about Biblical mythology. She has a difficult time teaching literature when her kids don’t understand half the text due to their ignorance. Parents and groups concerned with the separation between church and state ought to be vigilant, but I think it’s a good step toward putting the Bible into a historical and social context while expanding the cultural education of secondary school students.
Before I discovered New College, St. John’s College was at the top of my list. I’m not alone. I know many New College students who looked closely at St. John’s before deciding on New College. This fact is a littel strange because New COllege is all about freedom in designing your undergraduate education, while St. John’s has strict requitements for what each student takes. But both program emphasis a responsibility of student to student, student to faculty, faculty to faculty, and facutly to student. Both programs implement this emphasis by creating a small, intimate environment in and out of the class room and abandoning grades. Both programs are focused on original thinking by students and neither shy away from intellectual conflict and disagreement. So, it’s not so surprising that the schools would be recruiting from the same pool of smart, talented high schoolers who have little interest in traditional programs.
The idea of St. John’s still fascinates and excites me. My dream job would be as a tutor at the program (they say “tutor” rather than “professor.”) As a tutor you teach all subjects, regardless of expertise. I’d have to learn Greek along with my students. What could be better than spending your days not only teaching and shaping young mings, but being shaped by them and challenged by a curriculum with which you are not entirely familiar?
The school has two campuses; one in Annapolis and one in Santa Fe. I finally got my chance to visit the Santa Fe campus. Beki’s friend, Phil, is in town for the weekend, so, after a great breakfast, I left them at The Plaza and headed to the campus. The first thing to say is that the Santa Fe campus is gorgeous. It’s in the mountains of Santa Fe and reminded me a little of China with it’s oddly shapped, curvy, green mountains. There’s more foliage than at New College and grounds are impeccable. I’m sure this comes in large part from the school’s enormous wealth. The buildings were great looking and there was a nice little waterfall pond in the main quad. The admissions officer in me was drooling (parents eat this kind of stuff up), but the student in me was disappointed. There were a few tasteful flyers up for events, but the place looked like no one lived there. New College is littered with creative flyers, chalkings, and banners advertising everything (in my first year, my roommate put up flyers advertising me as “New College’s Best Kept Secret”). There are events that don’t happen anywhere else going on every week and the students make sure folks know about them. This kind of thing was completely lacking from St. John’s campus.
I made my way from the quad to some of the dorms. They were nice looking dorms that lacked the uniqueness of Pei, but seemed comfortable enough.
From the dorms I wanded into the arts building, which allows you to walk right out to the roof for a nice view of the mountains. I walked into the building and listened to a blues rock band rehersing. They had a kind of Memphis Horns section and sounded pretty good. I didn’t want to interupt, so I just listened from the hallway to a couple songs. The arts building was pretty big for a campus of about 475. New College has always lacked a big enough practice space for full bands.
From the arts building I went into the library. I was impressed by the beauty of the campus, but turned off by the rather antiseptic feel. The library, however, was incredible. Because the curriculum is fixed for all students and the entire program focuses on reading classic books, the library was allowed to lack large sections on biochemistry and urband planning and contemporary pyschology. Instead, the sections were broken into things like, “American Literature”, “Classical Lanugages”, and “Mathematics.” The math section was filled with books like Newton’s Principia and the natural science section had books about Einstein and the philosophy of science. The whole thing felt more like Thomas Jefferson’s private study than a university library. It was a small, intimate place that begged you to grab a copy of Anselm’s philosophy and curl up on one of the couches. It was a dream come true.
I don’t regret going to New College of St. John’s, but it was great to get a glimpse of the world that could have been. I think there are severe limitations for the program, but there are problems with New College’s system as well. Personally though, I’ll take New College’s habit of calling professors and students by their first names over the St. John’s habit of addressing professors and students by Mr. and Ms. I’ll also take ugly lawns with lots of hand made flyers and chalkings over perfectly manicured, almost Amusement Park grounds void of any signs of student creativity. Plus, while the mountains are great and all, one sunset at the bay is all I need to convince myself that New College will always be the place for me.
