First Impressions: Quaint, Qute, and ArQuaic

It has most everything a big school has but it is little. A little bookstore, a little health center, a little library, little dorms, little houses that hold offices, and a little hall ( like the Victorian halls used for the Jane Austen balls ) for formal ceremonies--- all held together by winding brick-paved sidewalks and big, old trees. The incoming Graduate Institute students (GI's) met around those tables and dug right into Plato. Bright, articulate students thinking through Socrates' motives on discussing Virtues with his friend Meno. Then we discussed our thoughts about the activity we just went through. 1.5 hours of non-stop, intense exhausting thinking-- listening to everyone's thought process and formulating and articulating a response. Later, a different group dug into Genesis 1-11 for 2 hours. No notetaking allowed. No lecture. Just texts, students and a tutor who guides the dialogue. The school campus is old, but the ideas are even older. Where in our society does this kind of sustained, thoughtful discussion.... where real listening ...occur? I look forward to the discipline and training. More later.