Los Angeles Times, Thursday, June 7, 2001
Never Too Late For A Classical Education
By: David Kelly, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
For an old oilman from Oklahoma, this was heavy
stuff. What is the nature of the soul? Where does it reside?
Frank King, a 60-year-old sophomore at Thomas Aquinas College
near Santa Paula, knew better than to offer half-baked observations
in philosophy class. So he let others speak before making
a few concise remarks and then backing off.
"I think anyone with the brains to get into this place
ought to come," King said later. "Because everything
after this is a piece of cake."
Like others at the small liberal arts college, King has a
degree but now hopes to get an education.
Each year, students with diplomas from such places as Stanford
and UC Berkeley enroll in the Great Books curriculum taught
here. At least 27% of all incoming freshmen have some level
of college education, and 5% already have bachelor's or master's
degrees.
Unlike many who return to college, they say they aren't looking
to boost their earning potential or launch a new career. In
fact, they are looking at the loss of four years of full-time
wages, in exchange for yet another undergraduate degree.
But they want a classical education, starting from ancient
Greece, advancing through the Renaissance and ending somewhere
in the 20th century with Hemingway and Huckleberry Finn.
"They want to form their minds and form good intellectual
habits," said Thomas Dillon, president of the college,
which has 277 students. "They are looking for the beginnings
of wisdom."
King first saw the campus two years ago when he brought his
daughter from Edmond, Okla., to visit five Southern California
colleges. His daughter decided against all of them,
but her dad was smitten by Thomas Aquinas.
The college sits in an isolated, emerald green valley between
Santa Paula and Ojai, surrounded by mountains. Santa Paula
Creek burbles nearby, avocado orchards abound and the foothills
are crisscrossed with hiking trails.
"I walked around here thinking, 'Now wouldn't this be
nice?' " said King, an impeccably polite man with a thick
Oklahoma accent who already has a bachelor's of science degree
from the University of Missouri and a master's of science
from the University of Southwestern Louisiana.
Recently divorced after a 23-year marriage, King was looking
for a new direction. He was tired of appraising oil wells
and wanted to test himself in a different way. So he took
the SAT, gathered references and wrote an essay on why he
would be a good fit for Thomas Aquinas College.
He was accepted.
King sold his home, paid the $19,000 tuition and board and
moved to a small trailer on campus. His day-to-day spending
money comes from stock market investments.
Now, instead of calculating how much oil can be squeezed from
a well, King spends his days studying philosophy, religion,
literature and mathematics.
He has endured agonizing hours at the blackboard proving ancient
geometric theorems. He studies Homer, Descartes and Einstein.
The education so far, he said, has made him a more critical
listener and reader.
"I admire the way Euclid, Ptolemy and Apollonius went
through these thinking exercises," King said. "I
don't know how I'll use it when I'm done, but I want to know
if I can stand up to the rigors of this curriculum."
Brian Dragoo shared King's itch for knowledge and the urge
to test himself.
The 29-year-old Thomas Aquinas senior, with a master's degree
in civil engineering from The University of Arizona, was working
at a Tucson engineering firm when he began feeling restless.
"I looked at what my boss was doing and I asked myself
if that is what I want to do for the rest of my life--sitting
in an office 80 hours a week billing clients," he said.
Half of the college's graduates go on to graduate or professional
schools, Dillon said. And, this being a Catholic institution,
there are some absolutes.
"There is a skeptical attitude in universities today
that says there is no right or wrong, that there is no higher
truth," Dillon said. "This is a self-defeating proposition.
If there is no truth, then there is no point in teaching."
Philosophy instructor John Nieto said most students with degrees
entering the college are in their late 20s or mid-30s.
"They recognized that something necessary was missing
in their understanding of the world," he said. "What
you can gain if you apply yourself here is a vision of the
world that brings everything together."
As for King, his grades are in the solid B range and he expects
to move into a dorm next year. Being the oldest student on
campus means he doesn't socialize much. He sings in the choir
and keeps in close contact with his grown children, back in
Oklahoma. When he leaves, he might become a Spanish or German
translator, he said.
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times. May not be
reproduced or retransmitted without permission.
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