Ad Fontes Upper School Program
Wander into the Ad Fontes Upper School and you will see the rarest of things: teenagers thinking and enjoying it. As students move into the rhetorical phase of their education, the emphasis in the classroom shifts from simply piling up more knowledge to mastering the arts of careful argument, diligent reason, and skillful persuasion.
In his Republic, Plato described the process of education as a man being reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he's forced into the presence of the sun. Indeed, the growth that accompanies true learning is often painful and difficult. A constant temptation for teachers is to smooth out the path for their students, to tell them the answers to the difficult questions that they face. It certainly makes the classroom time easier for students and teachers alike. But does this smoothing of the path really serve the student well. Is this the sort of education that we are called to provide as Christians? Can education be rough and difficult, yet enjoyable?
Student Discovery
In Mr. Mathwin's Government class the Seniors study the Peloponnesian War, fought between Athens and Sparta during the 5th century B.C. Once they have read through the account provided by Thucydides, Mr. Mathwin assigns the students to one of the pre-eminent greek poleis of the time: Athens, Sparta, Corinth or Chios. The students then re-enact the war, responsible for fashioning a grand strategy for their polis. Each Friday they move their forces around the map, recruit troops, and negotiate alliances.
The ebb and flow of battle forces the students to realize that destroying the enemy on the battlefield is only one small part of war. They learn that diplomacy, careful attention to economic matters, and political stability are all necessary to the successful waging of war. To be sure Mr. Mathwin has told them all of these things, but when they discover them on their own, the lesson becomes much more real and much easier to comprehend.
Formal Logic
Formal logic conjures up images of scholastic monks debating the nature of angels, how many would fit on the head of a pin. Understandably, it came as a shock when the ninth-graders heard that Mr. Carey was going to let their Logic class watch parts of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in class! Then, one November day, the lights of the classroom dimmed, the projector filled the room with an eerie blue light. Arthur, Bedevere, and a crowd of angry townspeople adressed the Logic class. The townspeople, intent on burning a woman as a witch, pled their case before Bedevere, and Arthur praised Bedevere's acumen and scientific insight. The students laughed uproariously. The lights came back on.
Gradually the students realized that the movie wasn't a diversion from the business of the class, but actually a part of the lesson they were learning! In fact, the characters in the movie had been constructing arguments using the very logical forms that Mr. Carey had been teaching his class that week. He handed out a transcript of the scene, and the class began to dig through the character's arguments. After two days of analysis the class came to the triumphant conclusion that the townspeople hadn't proved that the woman was a witch.
The Senior Thesis
Before students graduate, they undertake the Senior Thesis project. Under the carefult tutelage of Mrs. Moore they choose a topic which interests them. They raid local libraries for scholarly sources. They research their topic. They craft a thesis statement. They assemble arguments. They consider counterarguments. They write. They revise. They write again. They revise again. After three quarters of a year of work, they have produced a fifteen to twenty page work of scholarship to call their own.
When they have assembled a fifteen page paper, they hone it into a panel presentation. Members of the Board of Directors, Faculty, and other adults from the community listen to the presentation and question the student about their research.
Enjoying Thinking
It seems contradictory to talk about students enjoying thinking and then compare education to a rocky slope up which we drag young men and women. And if the pebbles and rocks in the educational path become boulders, the faculty is at hand to guide the students over them. Ultimately, however, the pleasure that a student draws from repeating well what they have been told to think is fleeting and unsatisfying. Intellectual enjoyment rather stems from a growing understanding of the beautiful complexity of God and his creation. That understanding must be earned in many pages of attentive reading, refined in many hours of conversation.
Indeed, if we examine the teaching of Jesus, we find that he himself often taught indirectly - parables - questions with questions. That is our approach at the Ad Fontes Upper School.