blog.shimer

Burford

This afternoon we all (minus Sara, Adrian and Bob) took a trip to Burford, Gateway to the Costwolds, with Genevieve Hawkins. Genevieve, you should know, has been part of the Shimer in Oxford Program for almost as long as the program's existence. She started tutoring Shimer students in French in 1973, and has had tutees on pretty much every one of Shimer's trips to Oxford since then, including two this term - Katy and Eugene. She also has a penchant for parish churches. In fact, she's on a quest to visit a thousand of them in England. She's currently up to 953. So I asked her if she would take us to one of her favorites and she very graciously obliged.

Our trip didn't add to Gen's tally, but she chose well in taking us to see Burford's Church of St. John the Baptist. It bears revisiting. It's one of those places (of which Oxfordshire has more than its share) where historical time gets foreshortened, in which the long, complex past becomes intimately vivid. The stones speak: on the baptismal font there's a bold graffito scratched in by "ANTHONY SEDLEY 1649 PRISNER" (yes, his spelling was thus, and his Ns were backward). Sedley was a "Leveler," a democratically-minded member of the republican forces of Cromwell's New Model Army who refused marching orders against the Irish. As a result, he and a small party of others were locked into St. John the Baptist to await their fate only months after King Charles I had lost his head to Cromwell and Parliament. Sedley reportedly watched from the roof as three fellow prisoners were executed in the churchyard. In fact, the church's stones seemed to bear a litany of dark moments, including this one further on in our tour:

According to a local history, "The crime was credited by some to the Fifth Earl of Abercorn, but he was acquitted by his peers and a gardener was hanged." (Sounds like a frame-job.)

But all in all, Burford has been just as prosperous and peaceable as any town its size, if not more so. It did a rich trade in wool and was at the center of hiving quarries of the golden Cotswold stone that built much of Oxford and the surrounding towns. Now it keeps up appearances mainly through the bursting tea and knickknack shops along its steep High Street, lined mostly with upscale medieval houses that give the whole place a charmingly diminutive stateliness. Burford is also an old center of Quaker worship; past resident Friends include the forebears of John Hancock (he of the Declaration) as well as Genevieve's uncle. The latter was an antiques dealer, and donated more than one of the items in the fascinating collection to be found in the local history museum to which we went following our tour of St. John's. But - enough of me nattering - here are some more pics of the day.

Genevieve and Ari at the tomb of Sir and Lady Tanfield. 

Eugene looking over a verse from William Tyndale's translation of the Bible painted onto a wall at the end of the south aisle.

Church of St. John the Baptist.

Looking over one of the 15th century royal charters for Burford's town market in the local history museum. 

Chilling: literally, figuratively. 

Getting to Know Oxford

Yesterday, I joked with Simon, Katy, Howard and Sara in our first Hum 3 class here that "only the dead know Oxford." I was hoping that they might have read the story by Thomas Wolfe whose title I was ripping off.* It fell flat, as my jokes will, but it seemed a propos since we were reading the Apology and Crito by Plato, and in our conversation it became clearer to me that (in Plato's way of looking at it at least) the dead know more than the living, or at least see things more clearly. So I thought of Wolfe, whose story begins:

"Dere’s no guy livin’ dat knows Brooklyn t’roo an’ t’roo, because it’d take a guy a lifetime just to find his way aroun’ duh goddam town."

Thus: "Ere's no man livin' wot nowz Awksfd end to wend, for id'take a bloke a lifetime jus to find 'is way around the bleedin' town."

In Wolfe's story, some nameless lug pulls out a map on a subway platform asking for directions. This starts an argument about how to get to "Eighteent’ Avenoo an’ Sixty-sevent’ Street."

Here in Oxford, the same kinds of arguments get started as to the nature of the University and its relationship to the city it occupies (I choose my words here advisedly). Just for starters, there's a long-running (centuries, that is) rivalry between three colleges - Merton, University and Balliol - as to which is the oldest. And then there's the fact that the University itself (i.e. as opposed to University College - you begin to see what I mean) was here even before any of the Colleges. And even people formally attached in whatever way to the University and (38 and counting) Colleges are pretty hard put to describe how the place works. I occasionally quiz people here on it, and like the crowd on the platform in Wolfe's tale, they all have strong opinions and reasons to back them up, but none are quite alike.

Of course, we are all now well-provisioned with maps of the city; a major activity here is dodging all the little knots of people that move randomly around the place while gazing at a piece of paper to know where they are or want to go. (as Wolfe's Brooklynite puts it: "an’ so help me, but he’s got it - he’s tellin’ duh troot - a big map of duh whole goddam place with all duh different pahts mahked out.")

And we've already had a tour (from the best Blue Badge guide in town I am told; there we are below, everybody one day off the plane). And I and Heath (Oxford '08-'09, who visited for a few days before heading to Edinburgh to start a master's program) have been doing our best to give hints about life in Oxford, where to go and how to get there.

But we're getting our footings, and beginning to leave our maps behind. In fact, Sara announced to me yesterday that she'd already managed to get lost for a while this past weekend; a triumph. I am hoping that we all get lost a few times before we finally find our way back to Chicago.

So, we'll check in now and then just to let you know we haven't fallen off the deep end. But if you wonder where we are, just know that we might not know ourselves. No worries. 

*"Only the Dead Know Brooklyn."

Face-to-Facebook (Part II)

     A while ago, several months in fact, I wrote a blog on Facebook and the terrifying ease of becoming addicted to it. This is when my roommate was still holding strong and refused to ever join the world of Facebook users. Now, however, the world has become a confusing place. Both of my roommates have caved. They've created their profiles and are socially networking. In other words, they don't need me anymore.
     I know, I know. What an odd thing to think, but now they can see what Shimer parties are going on by themselves. They can talk to classmates without actually seeing them and texting is only for the time away from the computer. I'm trying to be happy for them though.
     In all seriousness, however, I have been grateful for Facebook this summer. As I've written before, one of my roommates will not return here until later this month. She's been back home and then over to India. On Facebook, I got to see pictures of her home and constantly and consistently remind her that I miss her.
     Another incredible perk is getting to talk to the incoming Shimer students before they even get here. I will not be seeing the mass majority of them (I hear this is quite the large class) for a while, now that I am a Weekend student, but I'll still have the opportunity to get to know them regardless of not having class with them. Most excellent.
     And here is where my true purpose comes in, a plug for the "Thinking about going to Shimer..." page on Facebook. It truly is an excellent resource in deciding whether or not Shimer is the place for you. Many Facebook-addicted first- through fourth-year Shimer students are ready and willing to answer your questions, in addition to Cassie (cassie@shimer.edu), who is most knowledgeable about all things admission.
     I'll keep you posted.

A Word from our YouTube Channel...

Over the past few months, we've asked current Shimer students a number of questions and recorded their answers.  The questions have ranged from the practical (like, "What do you like best about Shimer?") to the imaginative or even somewhat absurd. 

For each question, over the next several weeks, we'll be releasing a video of various student answers.  This is the first.  We'll make sure they all get embedded here for our blog readers, but feel free to check out Shimer's YouTube Channel, too.  More than just this series will wind up there...

Team Shimer at St. Baldrick's

Hola Amigos! How's it going? I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya (cf. Jim Anchower). Well, I thought maybe Sara would beat me to the punch on this, but it looks like I get to tell you about our adventure last week at the St. Baldrick's event at IIT's "Bog." In brief, I, Sara, and alumnus Eric Nicholson got our heads shaved to raise $$ for children with cancer (and me to get a haircut at the same time). We raised more than a thousand dollars, though I am not sure how much exactly. Eric's contribution was by far the most impressive though: he had been growing his hair for more than twenty years, after losing it all when he had chemotherapy in his own bout with cancer. Wow. So, he got the pony tail clipped and bagged as it was long enough to help make a wig for a bald child. Now that's giving. Here's a photo of us all after the clipping:

Montaigne Scholarship

    Yesterday was Valentine's Day. More importantly, to those looking for a scholarship, it was the second day of the Fourth Annual Montaigne Weekend. Forty prospective students came from all over the States to compete for the Montaigne Scholarship. Was the competition intense? Of course. Was it fun? Absolutely. Will four people come out of it with a major scholarship to Shimer College? Yes!
    All they had to do, other then find their way to Chicago, was read an essay by Michel de Montaigne before arriving. Once here they wrote an essay and participated in a discussion on the text. The judges will now decide who gets the scholarship and everyone is notified around March 1.
    Other than the competition, the students (and their parents) got to take a tour of our campus, eat lunch in our cafeteria and scope out the dorm rooms. Current students (including Naomi Neal of my last post, who is one of last year's Montaigne winners) answered questions and chatted with the prospies throughout the two days.
    To the above right is a picture of me one year ago yesterday at my own Montaigne competition. It's a horrible picture, but it brings back the exciting feeling I had the first time I set foot on this campus. I can only hope the students over the weekend felt the same way. Below are pictures of Sunday's Montaigne group. Please forgive/excuse the back-of-the-head phenomena that is my picture taking skill.
    To the right is Jack Dragu from California. He's a senior in high school and really loves the idea of a place where you can read all of the time and then talk about what you read. That's probably one of the things that sold me right off the bat as well.
   

 

     Above are two of the tables in the cafeteria of the Shimer group. On the far table both of the Admission staff are present as well as Aaron Garland who handles a lot of the Alumni stuff at our school as well as the school website.
    To the left is Amy Pritts. She's relatively new to our school, our new Admissions Director. She spoke with a lot of the parents and hopefuls, explaining a lot of the inner workings of our school and the application process.
    Below is first-year Ben Bornstein (left) eating and chatting with prospective Christian.

      To the right is facilitator Barbara Stone. "Facilitator" is the correct term for the teachers at our school because, normally, they do not lecture or profess--they facilitate discussions in the classroom, make sure we're moving in the right direction and grade/help us with our papers.
    Below  the group heading into the dorms. This year, Shimer students have three floors of Gunsalaus Hall. This group was shown one of the sample rooms on the first floor, a one-bedroom apartment. All of our dorms, no matter the size, come with their own bathroom and kitchen.
    There are no co-ed rooms, but the floors are mixed. My neighbors are boys.

Playing: Oblivion (of the Shivering Isles variety)
Classes Today: Natural Sciences 2 (Darwin), Social Sciences 2 (Machiavelli), Humanities 2 (Homer)

Last Week/MWA

     It's been almost a week since my last post. I was getting so used to it being a part of my week-daily routine and then my computer went on the fritz. I suppose I could have written my posts in Shimer's computer lab (which, although small, is quite nice), but to write I need my own computer, my own space.

     Last Week's thoughts (condensed):

The Wordiness of Worddom

     Being around words all day can make a person a little flustered. There are just so many to be remembered, thought about, argued over. Pronunciation can get a little confusing when people are from all over these states (and from around the world).
     So, making up words just adds to the confusion.
     As a general rule, certain words, that already have meanings, should not be re-defined. My roommate really hates it when I say 'triangulate' and mean 'a meeting between three people, thus making a triangle'. Seeing as that is not even close to the correct definition, I suppose I can understand her annoyance when I exercise my creative linguistic license.
     However, there are times in class when a well made-up word can really capture the essence of what needs to be said. Like when a certain Shimer student, when speaking of an omelette, says, "The omeletteness of the omelette is what makes it pure." Or, "the chairyness of the chair makes it seem more red."
     We all understand what he means when he says it, he (usually) follows the rules of English grammar. Sometimes it is actually helpful in class because once in a while there really is no one word that captures the meaning of what we are discussing.

Haiti

     The last Community Tuesday we had featured Erik Badger, an alum, who spoke about Haiti. He, along with Professor Steve Werlin, have been working down in Haiti for a while now and are especially busy since the recent devastating earthquake.
     He told us about all of the help Haiti could use right now, not just donations but volunteer work as well. He also filled us in on the current political situation and connected us (via Skype) with Steve Werlin who is still in Haiti.
     To read Steve Werlin's statement about the aftermath of the earthquake go to: http://alumni.shimer.edu/s/1028/index.aspx?sid=1028&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=1154&ecid=1154&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=772

Midwest Worker's Association

     Many Shimer students volunteer with the Midwest Worker's Association (MWA) on a weekly basis. "The Midwest Worker's Association's purpose is to provide a wide range of social and health survive-and-get-on-your-feet services and referrals to organize advocacy of working families not covered by traditional labor laws and organizations" (from Loyola University's Website).

     Shimerians help out by distributing food donations, getting in contact with other organizations that can help the people of Chicago and collecting supplies like food.
     People are encouraged to help out in any way they can, like donating clothing or canned goods or participating in drives like the Super Bowl Sunday Tamale Benefit. Students and other volunteers worked many hours to make vegetarian and meat tamales and then sold them around the community to raise money for the people in need of help in Chicago.
     Currently, many people in the dorms here are planning on donating clothing to the MWA to be distributed throughout Chicago.

Playing: Still Mass Effect 2
Classes Today: Nat Sci 2, Soc Sci 2 and Hum 2

Can Warriors Come Home?

    Tonight I teamed with Cheryl again on a caper that took us to CAN-TV, the Chicago Cable Channel 21 to do a live call-in show. We were joined by Ben Marquez, a Weekend Program student who’s been at Shimer for a year and a half now, and came in part by way of service in the U.S. Army. Ben also happens to belong to three American Indian Nations, Navajo, Hopi and Cherokee. He and I were on the cameras talking about the question “Can warriors come home?” I thought this might be of interest to viewers today, as it was Veterans Day. The question seems to me one that we’re asking a lot in the U.S. these days. It's also one that we entertain every year at Shimer in a variety of ways through our curriculum, but perhaps most centrally and poignantly in our classes on Homer’s Odyssey. I’ve led classes on the Odyssey many times. One of the questions that always gets discussed is when exactly Penelope, Odysseus’ mate, recognizes him once he's returned home from the war in Troy (as recounted in the Iliad, of course). One is led to think in many ways that she knows who her guest is - though he is at first disguised as a beggar from Crete - once Odysseus has slaughtered all of the young men who had taken up residence in his home during his twenty-year absence and were courting Penelope (and through her the position of headman in Ithaka). But Penelope even then plays a very emotionally-charged game with Odysseus, testing him through a series of questions about her husband and dropping hints at how things have changed in Ithaka and with her since he'd been gone. Finally, Odysseus becomes enraged, but I will let you read how. I just wanted to indicate that it would not seem to me strange if a similar tale could be told by many a homecoming warrior and their mates.

    And this was the sort of thing I thought we might be able to talk about on tonight’s show. In addition, Ben had brought a lot of other materials to discuss, including quotations from Senator Fulbright on the costs of the Vietnam War, and some ideas about Plato’s Republic, which is founded, arguably, on the idea that war and a warrior class become necessary to us once we decide to live in a certain way beyond what is most essential, or necessary to us, i.e. once we look to a life of "relish" and luxury. Of course, such a life also seems to make philosophy possible - and necessary - but that's just opening a can of worms that it'd be hard to get control of in a half hour slot. 

    But even so, much as we tried to stay on point and offer we hoped inviting but serious points for discussion, we didn’t get a single caller! Not a one (well, one, but they just called and hung up as the show was ending). Anyway, Ben and I had a chance to chat, and it was a gas, so we plan to do it again. So if you’re in the Chicago area, keep an eye on CAN-TV, and we’ll be thinking about a question to propose about Thanksgiving or Christmas, maybe. 

Cheers!

From our own correspondent

This being my first blog post, introductions are in order. I happen to be one of the human race’s more fortunate members: I’m on the faculty at Shimer College. I read and discuss “the best that has been thought and said” for work. Go figure. (I also happen to be Shimer’s current Dean of Students, but I’ll leave that for another post.) 

Most of the time, I ply my trade here in Chicago with the folks you already know - Brigid, Kieran, Sara et al and their colleagues in class. But now and then I get to take the show on the road. Last year I was the Director of Shimer’s program in Oxford (and just signed on for another stint there next year; life’s good. Here, by the way, is a link to the blog we did during our stay there last year.). But I write to you today to relate my recent jaunt up and down the coast of California with Cheryl Park, one of our Admission counselors. 

Some of you have already talked or written with Cheryl, I’m guessing. If you have you know how smart and nice she is in her unassuming way (and if you haven’t yet, tell her I sent you). I’ve known that since I met her, but what I didn’t know is that she’s a filmmaker. I found that out as we shot the breeze driving up and down the left coast between engagements to spread the word about Shimer. She makes documentaries mostly (or, that’s what I’ve been able to get out of her about herself so far), but she’s also an expert on experimental film. And she is the first person ever to get me to do karaoke. In short, the talent is deep here. 

Cheryl’s been out in Cali for going on three weeks now. I’ve been out twice myself during her tour, once a couple weeks ago to the LA area and Santa Barbara, and then just this last weekend to Monterey. On the first trip, I got to dine at the Jonathan Club on the beachfront in Santa Monica with Andrea and Rhos Dyke, the parents of Lance, who graduated last year (and, among other things, fenced for the University of Oxford and studied Lute last year on the program abroad). With us on that evening was Ruth Grubb, a College Counselor at Pacific Palisades High School. We talked a lot about the woes Californians are having with their state school system with the recent budget cuts. And we talked about more ways to get the word out about Shimer.

The next day, Cheryl and I went up the coast to Santa Barbara City College, a two-year college that sends many of its graduates on to four-year programs (most of them into the California State University and University of California system). Our host there was Professor Celeste Barber of the College’s English Department. Celeste helped design and now teaches in the SBCC Great Books program, and hosted a reception with students from the school interested in possibly attending Shimer. We went to lunch down in the harbor district with a student and Manoutchehr M. Eskandari-Qajar, a historian of Persia and political scientist who leads the Middle Eastern Studies club at SBCC. It was a filling and stimulating lunch. 

To finish off the weekend, Cheryl and I had a series of meetings with individual students around the area who had expressed interest in Shimer. That’s the thing about our Admission department - they give as personalized treatment as one gets all the way through the program at Shimer, where I know every student by name (and in most cases more than that). All told, Cheryl seemed to think the trip had gone well, and I had to agree.

Two weeks later - that is, just this past weekend - I went back out and met Cheryl up in the Bay area. This time, we were off to Monterey Peninsula College. We were joined on the visit by Ken Knabb, an alumnus of Shimer in 1964, back when the school was in Mount Carroll, Illinois. (If you’re not up on that history, it’s what I’d call a long story, but a good one. You can find more about the school’s storied past here.) 

Ken is a fascinating person. He came to Shimer in 1961 from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, matriculating when he was just 16, an early entrant of the kind that Shimer’s welcomed since it adopted the Hutchins Program from the University of Chicago. When he graduated (in 3 years!) he moved out to Berkeley and has lived there since, in the same small cottage, lined floor to ceiling with his books. Ken’s a student of anarchism and especially the Situationists, whose writings he has translated and published, including here on his website. I’ve had the occasion to use his Situationist Anthology in a class and can tell you it’s an invaluable addition to any library of political thought. 

Cheryl, Ken and I made it to Monterey by about 12:30 last Friday and set up shop in a conference room in the Humanities building dedicated to Monterey Peninsula College’s Great Books Club. Our host in Monterey was Professor David Clemens, who is the Coordinator of the school’s Great Books program, with a significant interest in how technology interfaces with education. We also met a few other faculty in the Great Books Program, and two students, Joshua Converse and Jaclyn Carpenter. 

We had a great chat about the whole “great books idea,” which is the title of David’s introductory course to a curriculum of great books courses that Monterey Peninsula College hosts not only in its classrooms but also online. Beyond the ins and outs of doing great books education on the internet, our conversation ranged from the structure of Shimer classes and the curriculum to changes in American writing for the stage and beyond that to the evolving character of American heroic figures (from cowboys to private detectives to spacemen, e.g.). And we ate cookies. All in all, for a literate crowd, it was a total blast. 

More later, and very nice to meet you.

You can read more about Stuart on Shimer's Website.

Shimer sample

Faculty member Albert Fernandez joins us in this entry:

    Most of what is said in Shimer classes is, of course, said live and for the most part lost to posterity.  It's not easy to have an idea of what Shimer discussion is like unless you enroll or visit a class. But we also have cyber-exchanges, mostly by e-mail.  As a sample, below is such an exchange between one of my students, David Brault, in an upper-level course called Philosophy and Theology ("Hum 3"), and myself.

    The immediate context is class discussion of concepts that are sometimes claimed by philosophers or religious thinkers to be innate and to refer to transcendent realities--the concepts of God and of the Good are prime examples.  The more modern idea, mostly attributed to John Locke but originally articulated by Plato, is that all ideas are derived from experience and culture.

David writes:

Check this out: these two sites trace the history of the word "good" back to its original status as a word describing something actually physical, and then applied metaphorically to get the moral senses of the word.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080626165353/www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE155.html

 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=good&searchmode=none

"THE GOOD" is actually a metaphor related to the idea of being physically complete, taken over to mean complete in other senses too--

The prehistory of the word God has little relevance to the idea of a cosmic god:

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=god&searchmode=none

The prehistory of the word "justice," just to round things off:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080701024909/www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE601.html

What is just is what is.... lawful. What is lawful is what... your culture's laws are. How would this all be explained form-wise [in terms of Platonic form]?  If you believe in Forms wouldn't there be an understanding of what these concepts are from the dawn of time, as they would not be metaphorically constructed concepts?

David  Brault

And my response:

    In answer to the question at the end of your message, I am channeling Plato, who says through me that, yes, the form of justice was present in human minds before there was any law, and indeed made it possible to conceive of law, even if that happened long before anybody had a concept of justice. Justice is a form older than the concept of justice or the concept of law, and is indeed the condition of possibility for thoughts of either law or justice.

  Thank you, Plato.  Speaking from a more modern perspective, what linguists call “language acquisition capability” is the condition of possibility for words or thoughts in English, French, etc.