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Choosing The Right College - The Whole Truth About America's
Top 100 Schools
Intercollegiate Studies Institute (1998)
Introduction by William J. Bennett
"[Thomas Aquinas College is] virtually
unparalleled for providing its students with a rigorous
liberal arts education." -- Intercollegiate Studies
Institute
II. Academic Life: Trivium Pursuit
All Thomas Aquinas students take the
same four-year sequence of courses in the "Great
Books," described by the college as "the original
works of the best, most influential authors, poets, scientists,
mathematicians, philosophers, and theologians of Western
civilization." The program is constructed along the
medieval divisions of the trivium (logic, rhetoric, and
grammar) and the quadrivium (geometry, astronomy, arithmetic,
music). All of these disciplines are interrelated and
oriented toward the same intelligible truth. This program
of study is both interdisciplinary and cohesive -- in
short, the very essence of a liberal education.
By any standard, the curriculum is rigorous
and impressive. The college catalogue speaks of "the
natural order of learning" and states that "the
object and the method of education are not arbitrary."
The college believes "experience leads to art and
art to science"; thus, its curriculum "proceeds
through the liberal arts . . . which arise as human constructs
by which men seek to give order and expression to the
reality they experience."
Thomas Aquinas students follow one well-designed
track on their quest for truth. They take two years of
Latin, four years of mathematics, laboratory science and
theology, three years of philosophy, and a year of both
music and logic. The centerpiece of the curriculum is
a four-year great books seminar commencing with the Illiad
and Odyssey and progressing to The Waste
Land. "The texts studied within the curriculum
are the original writings of the greatest minds in our
intellectual tradition," writes President Thomas
E. Dillon in the preface to the college’s founding
document. "They are to be read not primarily for
historical or cultural reasons, but because they are the
best attempts to understand things in themselves while
attending to our common experience."
"It is one of the most carefully
thought-out curricula in the country," says one professor.
Changes are made very infrequently, and are arrived at
only after serious deliberation among faculty.
As might be expected, theology is the
queen of all disciplines at Thomas Aquinas. The result,
however, is not a Catholic version of an evangelical Bible
college. The liberal arts are studied not as obstructions
to the truth, but as the way to understanding truth. Faith
illuminates this path, and that is the reason for its
central position in the Thomas Aquinas curriculum. But,
as one professor notes, "truth is attainable in the
sciences . . . you can move beyond them to wisdom."
Another agrees that "math and science are legitimate
ways of approaching reality" and that it is important
for believing Christians to "come to grips with science"
in a field dominated by skeptics and agnostics.
Thomas Aquinas has no electives and no
majors; as one faculty member puts it, "to choose
the college is to choose a liberal arts major." According
to another, Thomas Aquinas is an excellent choice for
the "yeoman student." Nearly 20 percent of the
student body was homeschooled, and about a third went
to another college before choosing Thomas Aquinas; many
applied after becoming dissatisfied with the education
they were receiving elsewhere.
Thomas Aquinas does not consider its
faculty to be "professors" in the literal sense
-- people whose job it is to dispense their wisdom on
students -- but "tutors," men and women who
serve to facilitate and guide discussion of the great
books. Indeed, the college believes "the true teachers
are the great writings in which the tradition lives."
The tutorial method of instruction has
been abused at other colleges, where it is sometimes in
the hands of faculty who are unprepared for teaching and
amounts to little more than a verbal free-for-all. According
to students and faculty, this is decidedly not the case
at Thomas Aquinas. Tutors are expected to guide the discussion,
and most are very adept at knowing when and how to participate.
"Even when the tutor is doing the ‘hands off’
thing, he’s guiding you with his questions,"
a student says. "When the tutor isn’t giving
you a light, it’s a really good mental exercise to
have to grasp it for yourself." Because of the relatively
open nature of the classroom, there is no guarantee against
the occasional tangential comments or bizarre speculations.
But, as one student notes, "sometimes something that
seems strange can actually be helpful."
Students must prepare for seminars by
reading and considering the assigned texts. Reading lists
can be extensive in some seminars (the senior great books
seminar covers twenty-seven authors) but never include
criticisms or literary theory-type texts. "The college
discourages the reading of secondary sources and commentaries,
which are likely to inhibit a direct and unprejudiced
acquaintance with the books they read," according
to the catalogue.
The college also underplays the importance
of standard indicators of progress in college courses,
such as examinations. Instead, it has instituted a pseudo-British
form of evaluation called the "Don Rags," a
twice-yearly event in which a student meets with all of
his tutors and receives a verbal "progress report."
"A Don Rag," says the catalogue, "unlike
a report card, offers specific advice on what the student
can do to advance in the intellectual life." Thomas
Aquinas also gives letter grades, but says they are not
important.
The curriculum requires quite a bit of
writing, and each semester students owe papers on a topic
from each course. Thomas Aquinas also requires a senior
thesis, which must be defended in a public session.
Although the format at Thomas Aquinas
is largely tutorial, students do periodically attend lectures.
Every other Friday a formal lecture is given by either
an outside speaker or a member of the college faculty;
on occasion, there will be a musical performance instead.
"Most of the subjects are close to the curriculum,"
says one tutor. The discussions that ensue after the talk
are usually lively and extensive.
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[Contents]
Reprinted by permission of Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
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