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A College for reading?



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Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:12 am
Emerson says...



My dad saved an article of a news paper for me, I thought I would share it here. A college for Reading?

October 9, 2006
BY JIM RITTER Staff Reporter
An unusual little college has just moved to the South Side of Chicago.

It's called Shimer College, and it's the only college in the Midwest where every student must take a daunting Great Books curriculum.

For four years, students immerse themselves in the often-challenging writers who have shaped Western culture, from Aristotle and Sophocles to William Faulkner and Toni Morrison.

Students call their professors by their first names. Professors call themselves "facilitators." There are no lectures. Classes, typically with just 12 students, are run like Socratic dialogues. ...


Read more Here

What do you think of that? I wish I could go there...They're reading Dostoevsky! I'm reading his crime and punishment now, and I want to read the one there reading. Does that make me smart or what, hm? hee hee.
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Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:52 am
LamaLama says...



I have a collection of all the great books that have influenced western culture, oddly enough. They're old, and probably not worth much now, but there's volumes and volumes of them.

This is a cool idea, I hope it works. I never want to go there, but its still a cool idea.
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Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:32 am
Tassen Spellbinder says...



Sounds fun to me.
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Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:18 am
Poor Imp says...



It's an excellent idea.
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Thu Oct 19, 2006 5:29 am
sabradan says...



sounds like agreat idea.
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Thu Oct 19, 2006 8:39 am
Myth says...



I wish I could go there, it sounds great.
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Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:23 am
Emerson says...



There are actually a lot of schools that have "great books" classes.

I just googled "Great book classes in *enter state abbreviation here*" and found a list of them, but I'm sure there is a better list out there.
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Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:29 pm
Nate says...



There's another school like that near me called Saint Johns over in Annapolis, MD. I didn't know about it until I was already in college, otherwise I at least would've applied. It's a really nice campus, and the Great Books curriculum sounds cool. Plus, I kind of think that's the way college should be done.
  





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Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:24 pm
sabradan says...



I just like the idea of having a univeristy run the way an institution of higher learning should: through socrating method, instituting actual LEARNING not rote memorization for tests.
"He who takes a life...it is as if he has destroyed an entire world....but he who saves one life, it is as if he has saved the world entire" Talmud Sanhedrin 4:5

!Hasta la victoria siempre! (Always, until Victory!)
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Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:24 am
Emerson says...



I'm such a book nut case, and all I will read are old classics, not much else unless its something for shear entertainment so I really liked this idea...

There aren't many (I think...2?) in my area though.
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Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:27 am
Snoink says...



Saint Mary's College in Orinda has a program like that. :)
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Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:26 pm
LamaLama says...



St Mary's college in Omaha begged me to go there, offered me scholarships and the like. They're an all girls school, figure that one out.
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Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:20 am
Via says...



That sounds awesome! Do you not have to take the general ed classes and what not as well?
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Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:41 am
Emerson says...



The General ones? I'm not sure. I think like any college you could go just for that one class, perhaps....If you were just going to learn, and not to graduate. Or something.

But, I have no idea. I don't know anything about college.
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Sun Dec 10, 2006 1:45 am
Via says...



Yea, I know that much. I was just wondering because it kind of sounds like all you do is read...no science, math, etc. involved. I was just kind of curious to know how a degree there would be nationally recognized if the gen. ed. classes weren't taken?
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