Definitions and Creation

On Wednesday morning — while visions of volleyball and dance class still danced in their heads — attendees on the California High School Summer Program got to experience their first taste of Euclid.

The ancient geometer’s work holds a place of special importance in the Thomas Aquinas College curriculum, and freshmen spend the entire year studying and grappling with his magnum opus, The Elements. Today, tutors guided students as they pored over several of Euclid’s definitions, postulates, and common notions, contemplating questions such as, “What is a point?” “What constitutes a line?” and “What makes a right angle?”

“There was a lot of investigation and discussion to get a good grasp on the material,” said Joseph S. In the upcoming math tutorials, students will use the principles they learned today to demonstrate geometric truths on the chalkboard for their classmates. “It was really interesting,” shared Kate C. “I did not know that people could talk about the first page of Euclid for an hour and a half! There were a lot of good arguments for even the smallest things, such as whether points actually exist.”

After a lunch of burgers, fries, and apple walnut salad, the students returned to their now-familiar classroom for an afternoon discussion on chapters 1-11 of Genesis. Having examined the pre-Socratic philosophers’ notions of nature on Tuesday, they turned their attention to the Biblical account of Creation, comparing the two accounts in Genesis, pondered the meaning of good and evil, and asked how Adam and Eve’s free will could coexist with God’s foreknowledge of the Fall. “There were a lot of different opinions,” marveled Evelyn S.

They will probe these questions — and more — in tomorrow’s classes. But before then, an evening full of activities awaits! Read all about it in tomorrow’s update on the Summer Blog.