Sections & Sundaes, Anticipating Antigone

What a first day for the 2021 New England High School Summer Program! After Monday’s second class, in which students discussed piety, the essence of virtue, and definition in Plato’s Euthryphro, the group made its way down to one of the campus’ athletic fields for the Section Games.

A “section” at Thomas Aquinas College is a group of about 17 students who, for the duration of the academic year, take all their daytime classes together. The idea behind organizing classes this way stems from the College’s use of the Discussion Method. Because the method depends on open discourse — which, in turn, relies on trust — it is important for students to come to know each other well. By taking nearly all of their classes together, the members of each section achieve a sense of intimacy and come to rely on one another in their shared pursuit of the truth. 

For the Section Games, students from each of the Summer Program’s sections faced off in a variety of games, including egg toss, water balloon fights, and relay races. The afternoon was warm, but the students thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and some even lingered afterward for a quick game of ultimate Frisbee.