More Soundbites

Academic Dean
You know, some people are nervous about a school like this, like Aristotle, and at 14, my kid can’t do this. What would you say to a family that saying “my kid can’t do this”?

Student
There’s a lot of talk about discussion about the higher things in these deep philosophical topics, and it’s very heady and pretty intimidating. And even to me, I would look at some of the seniors, the juniors, when I was a sophomore, I looked at things they were reading like Faust or Paradise Lost, which we’re reading this year. And it would just seem like too much for me. And so I totally get where that comes from. I think it’s a really valid concern. What I found when I got to the summit was that it’s just like any other school. They’re not going to throw you in there with absolutely nothing and say, tell me A, B and C about this subject. Right, you’re taught. I want do want to bring up the culture of the summit because it’s Catholic and it’s uplifting. And it’s just like Kate said, it’s really comfortable. So it’s just a great place to have a discussion like that. So you are kind of brought into the class. And if it’s a discussion based class, there’ll be a prompt in question. But you’re not expected to have any kind of knowledge or like prelude or anything like that. You can just kind of go off of what you think. And that can be the basis for your discussion. So you don’t have to come in with any sort of predisposed knowledge. It’s taught like any other class. You start and you progress the way up.

Academic Dean
Kate, would you would you agree with that? Is this for more people than people think it is or is it for just a select elite?

Student 2
Right, no, I definitely think that people are capable of more than they know. Coming in at freshman year, the first week is pretty rough because, you know, you’re kind of thrown into something new and different. And I kind of experienced that. But what I learned was that my mind desired to know things. And so the more I learned, the more I grew and, you know, not like I’m this amazing thinker or anything.

Headmaster
Yes, you are.

Student 2
And I realized that I hadn’t really been thinking that deeply about things. And I wanted to learn more about everything. And once you get that desire and once you feel that, and once you let it grow, you are capable of so much more.