A Classical Education

 This year I spent a lot of time thinking about education, which is unsurprising since as I go off to college, so many different educational philosophies are getting thrown at me. One surprising argument that I’ve started to adopt is regarding the value of classics in education. I started getting exposed to this argument at a DC conference in February, where a college professor was discussing how he felt that classics were critical to the development of human virtue and the formation of morality. This seemed a bit lofty at the time, but I think I’ve come to recognize the truth behind what he was saying.

I’ve come to realize I think that I spent too much of my time in high school focused on STEM, to the point that it’s hindered my ability to explore other topics. I never even really took a history class until AP world history this year, which is kind of crazy to think about. Surprisingly though, I’ve really enjoyed that class. I feel like it’s taught me a lot about society and the institutions that govern our day to day, or why the social and cultural norms we experience exist. In today’s hyper-technological society, that value is often under emphasized.

Liberal arts really make better citizens because it facilitates the development of informed people who can make better decisions and evaluate contemporary situations in the context of different times and different societies. The classics, which embody the ideology of those times, are good ways in which we can start to discuss and see these shifting worldviews throughout time and are invaluable resources to learn from as we seek to find modern meaning for these historical lessons. One of the major factors that I considered when I was trying to decide where to go was the strength of the humanities department at the institution I wanted to attend. I’m hoping that next year, I can experience SLE, which is a mini liberal arts college in Stanford, where I’ll get to study the classics from the Renaissance to now (with big titles like Dante’s inferno), so I can become a more well-rounded and informed person. It’s kind of odd, considering I knew I’d go into engineering for most of my life, but I want to take undergrad as a chance to explore and find myself. I believe through the classics I can do that, and undergo the moral and personal development that will shape my life and future career.