The near perfect college

   The college nearly for me: thus is the description of St. John’s college. I am in love with books.

Everyone who knows me well know that I am taking all my spare moments either reading or climbing trees. St. John’s reading program is exactly what I would love. Sitting around talking about Plato’s Apology, Homer’s Odyssey, or Roger Green’s Fable of Troy sounds like heaven! It also sounds like Honors Western Civ. 1. We sit around a table, receive a brief lecture on the time period around the book, then discuss what the book says. This formula, while not exactly like St. John’s, is what works the best for me. It fits perfectly in that zone of proximal development. It requires just enough output from me to keep me interested, but also just enough difficulty to keep me thinking. Sadly, this is the only class I have that works this way. All my other classes, except Honors Orientation, have one textbook where we read it before class, then are taught the exact same stuff in a long boring, probably sleep filled, lecture. I hate it. As I was reading through St. John’s description (4 years of Ancient Greek, no lectures, 1-8 faculty-student ration, etc.) I wondered why I never applied there, minus the exception that they wouldn’t teach my major. I even considered transferring, but I looked a bit closer and saw something I completely forgot about; the Professors lecture us because they actually know what they are talking about. While it’s great and very important that we spend time in discussion, we also need to be taught and lectured because we aren’t all knowing being like God.