I don’t think I’d even heard of St. John’s College, America’s third-oldest institution of higher education, founded in 1696, until a few years ago. The school is known for its not-exactly-innovative methods and materials:
So what makes St. John’s unique? First, as David Brooks of the New York Times recently wrote, the college has the “courage to be distinct” amid a marketplace of more than 5,000 colleges and universities in the US. A big part of that distinction is due to a strict adherence to its own curated curriculum and teaching methods, known simply as “the Program,” implemented back in 1937.
In contrast to some liberal arts stalwarts like Brown or Wesleyan that allow students to choose from a vast array of classes with few restrictions, St. John’s offers only the Program; it’s prix fixe is a higher education world of a la carte. Four years of literature, language, philosophy, political science and economy, and math. Three years of laboratory science, and two of music. That’s it. No contemporary social studies. No accounting. No computer classes. No distinct majors or minors.
The Great Books, or “texts” as they are referred to at St. John’s, flow largely in chronological order. Starting with the Greeks and working through the 20th century, including some “recent” science readings from the 1950s and 1960s, the curriculum is rarely altered. The college adds only what it believes are seminal works, and often it takes decades to reach consensus on what may be worthy of inclusion. Juniors and seniors have “electives” and can suggest texts for a class or two. The sequencing of classes is very important to the St. John’s method, with knowledge building over the semesters and years.
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You will not find 100-person lectures, teaching assistants or multiple-choice tests at St. John’s. Instead classes are led by “Tutors” who guide students through Socratic inquiry (and yes, students do read about the Socratic practice during freshman year in Plato’s Theaetetus). Despite its reputation as a sadistic exercise in student humiliation, the Socratic method is actually an interactive form of intellectual sandpapering that smooths out hypotheses and eliminates weak ideas through group discourse. Tutors lead St. John’s discussions but rarely dominate; they are more like conversation facilitators, believing that everyone in class is a teacher, everyone a learner. And you won’t find Johnnies texting or surfing social media while in class; there is no place to hide in classrooms that range from small (seminars, 20 students led by two tutors) to smaller (tutorials, 10 to 15 students, one tutor) to smallest (preceptorials, 3 to 8 students, one tutor).
There is a formality in a St. John’s classroom—an un-ironic seriousness—that feels out of another era. Students and Tutors address each other by “Mr.” or “Ms.” (or the gender-inclusive honorific of choice). Classrooms have a retro feel, with rectangular seminar tables and blackboards on surrounding walls, and science labs filled with analog instruments, wood and glass cabinets, old school beakers and test tubes.
The Statement of the St. John’s Program lists the works (starting on page 19).
A.K.A. “the great books school”
Would be more appropriate as a high school curriculum.
I wish I was evolved enough at 17 to choose a program like this! Of course, it would require you to go to grad or trade school to learn a skill.
Being learned in the classics used to be an obligatory element of higher education. Certain demographics now totally shun “learned in the classics”.
Alumni and longish-time reader — 5 years?
Ask me anything!
The weakest part of the program is how rushed it is. Hard to consider myself someone with a classical education when we only spent 10 hours of class time on the Aeneid for instance. Four years isn’t enough time for 3,000 years.
The school is currently being targeted by far-left groups. There are older students (25+ year olds) that look young that actively work for militant far-left groups and try to indoctrinate the younger kids. The faculty are relatively entrenched but the older campus leftists both intimidate their peers with the advantage of age to put social pressure, and distribute drugs for free at parties, not joking when I say that there are 30 year olds walking around giving 18-20 year old kids weed and mushrooms.
The social/party scene will continue to be ruled by these groups of people, since most incoming freshman are looking to do something at 9pm on Friday other than discuss the great books.
But, I think there is a very strong core of students on both campuses, especially sophomore year onwards that are taking the program seriously and genuinely enjoy talking about the books with friends and receive the fruits of being engaged in a sincere way.
SF author John C. Wright is a graduate, I believe. I have also heard it’s under poz attack lately.
The new president may be SJw sympathetic and they’re redoing their campus sexual assault policy which could be a bad sign.
But if there are jobs available that involve going back to college at age 30 while distributing free drugs… Honestly sign me up! Who pays my tuition and drugs? Won’t be cheap…
This excellent piece on the now defunct Shimer College makes a compelling case that All the assigned Aristotle in the world will not save you if the school is filled with people who want to get jobs with the $PLC.
My sister was strongly recruited by St. John’s (yeah, she was the smart one). My father, The Colonel, was impressed with their flier … until he found out his Little Girl would be only a few blocks from The Navel Academy. Academics be damned, no way was she going THERE!