Number Two leaves for Thomas Aquinas College High School Summer Program

Last night at dinner, husband, a St. John's College alum, told the rest of the offspring to say farewell to their sister because a mind-expanded version of her will be returning in two weeks.

We were at the airport at 6 AM to see her off to California. She has been reading Plato, Boethius and the Greek tragedies for a month, in preparation for the high school summer program at TAC. Number One attended the program two years ago and accompanied us to the airport.

Number Two's trip leads us to the whole business of the relevance and Catholic-icity of a Great Books education. Continuing the conversation (around a table of Risk with Numbers One, Three, Four and Five), and commenting on the number of Great Books that date from times before Christ, husband reminds us that the greatest doctor of the Catholic Church, Thomas Aquinas, is totally seeped in the Graeco-Roman intellectual tradition. His greatest achievement is a synthesis of Classical philosophy and Christian theology.

Already missing Number Two, and perusing TAC's website as if I could see her strolling about, I found a good quote:

The intellectual tradition of the Catholic Church contains a clear and detailed account of what education should be. Perhaps more than any other tradition, it insists that there are great books, but it goes much further than this. It explains why certain books are great, and it distinguishes among them as regards their excellence and their authority. But it does not regard the understanding of great books as an end in itself. Rather, it orders the study of all such books to an understanding of the truth about reality-a truth of which it speaks with confidence, from the word of God which it receives in faith. (Source: www.thomasaquinas.edu)