Posted on 08/26/2009 1:54:17 PM PDT by Pyro7480
Thomas Aquinas College is not your typical modern university. Students read the classics, not textbooks. Girls must wear skirts or dresses to class. There’s a curfew of 11 on school nights.
Yet the conservative Catholic college, nestled in the hills of Santa Paula, is attracting national attention for its small classes, generous financial aid and strong academics. U.S. News & World Report this month ranked it among the nation’s top 100 liberal arts colleges....
Above all, Thomas Aquinas is known for its Great Books program. Instead of using textbooks, students learn every subject — from literature to science — by reading the classics. The freshmen reading list, for example, includes Homer’s “Odyssey,” the Bible, Euclid’s “Elements” and Mendel’s “Experiments in Plant Hybridization.”
Every student studies the exact same curriculum, moving through the same set of books each year. There are no majors or electives.
Students don’t get lectures, either. Instead, they discuss the works in seminars that average about 15 people, guided by a tutor, which is what the college calls its professors. Together, by questioning and challenging one another, they are expected to arrive at the truth through a combination of reason and faith.
It’s a demanding way to learn, and certainly not for everyone. Beyond learning the subject at hand, students also must learn how to articulate and defend their ideas, a valuable life lesson, they say. Inevitably, especially as freshmen, some students talk too much, dominating the discussion. Others listen too much, because they’re too shy or too disengaged to speak up, students say....
“Everything is so ordered toward the proper nature of men and women, toward God,” said sophomore Kayla Kermode, 19. “It fosters the intellectual life and the spiritual life.”
(Excerpt) Read more at venturacountystar.com ...
What a beautiful church.
Catholic ping!
Yup, that’s the college’s chapel, which was recently completed.
I’m very impressed by what they do. There are only a few in the world that are doing this, and I think thats tragic.
Study here and you take part in a 3000 year long conversation, and you come out prepared to make a meaningful contribution to the civilization, rather than being merely a consumer and bystander. You may not get all the Halliburton rants that you’d get at State University, but you’ll come away with a real education and a real understanding of the underpinnings of the world.
As I get older, I realize how profoundly ignorant most of the public intellectuals are, and I realize that the traditional university is shamefully unable to educate. Listen to your typical educator opine about anything and you’ll realize that most education is the blind leading the blind. The longer these kids spend under their tutelage the less they know.
I would like to see this model replicated by others who are looking to offer an alternative to the standard university model. We don’t have to simply accept what doesn’t work; we should be building what does.
The founders of Thomas Aquinas believed students could arrive at the truth through reason and faith and a fixed curriculum based on books written centuries ago in many cases.
“The notion of Catholic liberal education here is radically different, because it’s based on the notion that the object of education is to understand the order and meaning of the universe,” DeLuca said. “If there is an order, there has to be an orderer. If you understand the order, you can understand something of the orderer.”
You are absolutely right about that.
They do. As well as the medical field and teaching.
I went out there in 1999 to attend a friend’s graduation. Spent the weekend there. I was completely floored by what I saw! It’s simply “The Best”!
If I could do things over again... (sigh)
Thomas Aquinas....pitches for the Red Sox, right?
I pitch, therefore I am.
Oh, that was the other guy, pitches for the Orioles.
I like the idea of studying classic Western thought, and I’ve heard wonderful things from people who have been to Aquinas to see the place, but...
What’s up with the dress code? Sounds overly picky and sexist to me.
If the women are supposed to wear skirts, are the men all wearing coat and tie?
Is there a code re: footwear too?
I know a guy who has been there a few times for weekend professional enrichment programs, and he never mentioned anything like this. His daughter considered attending there, and she never mentioned it either.
The dress code is intended to create a more formal atmosphere in the classroom. No wearing sweats or sneaking in in your pjs. Men don’t wear coats and ties, they are required to have collared shirts that are tucked in during class hours. The dresscode isn’t perfect, but I did appreciate the environment that it created.
I think your friend and his daughter are attending a different college. TAC doesn’t do weekend enrichment programs.
Teaching how to think...excellent.
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