A MOST UNUSUAL COLLEGE: NO TEXTBOOKS AND NO LECTURES
St. John’s College looks like a typical American college. But what goes on inside its classrooms is unlike just about every other college in the United States. At this small institution, about 60 kilometers north of Washington, D.C., each student is devoted to reading the classics of Western Civilization. That’s why St. John’s is also known as the “Great Books” School.
1. Sustained engagement with the works of great thinkers and genuine discussion with peers made many students enroll at St. John’s College.
2. By reading great books and struggling together with the fundamental questions that they raise, students and their teachers learn from one another.
3. No textbooks are used. Instead there are 100 books on St. John’s list that are to be read in roughly chronological order, beginning with ancient Greece and continuing to modern times.
4. There are no class lectures and all classes are discussion-based.
5. Students mention the works by Homer and Aristotle among their favourite.
6. St. John doesn’t allow cameras into college.
7. There are no majors and no departments at St. John’s. All students follow the same program.
8. A sophomore can easily engage in a conversation about what juniors are reading.
9. Students say that the books they read do not only illuminate the persisting questions of human existence, but also have great relevance to contemporary problems.
5. Watch a VOA report about the apprentice program run by the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union in the state of Maryland.