SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA: Reciting Plato
is hard enough. Try doing it dressed in a toga, in public, in the middle of a
crowded student center at lunchtime.
Oh, and you must not laugh,
grimace or otherwise betray any hint of adrenaline-fueled stress, nervousness or
embarrassment, even as other young men and women gawk at you while sipping their
Starbucks lattes.
No wonder University of Scranton honors students
dread The Trivium, an intensive study of grammar, logic and rhetoric that
harkens back to the medieval academy but is unlike anything being taught at an
American university today.
Call it a marriage of philosophy,
communications and critical thinking. Students read the classics, of course, but
also learn how to communicate their ideas clearly, confidently and effectively,
even under extreme circumstances like those conjured in the gleefully sadistic
mind of professor Stephen Whittaker.
"This is the class where they
grow up," said Whittaker, a droll man with a goatee and a shock of gray hair.
Whittaker, 59, developed "Triv" about 25 years ago. It's a requirement for
sophomores enrolled in the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program, a
four-year course of study open by invitation to about 5% of incoming freshman
based on SAT scores, high school class rank and record of community
service.
For the finale, students gather in a highly trafficked spot
on campus for a public retelling of 'Phaedrus', a dialogue written by Socrates'
protege, Plato, about 2,400 years ago. They must deliver the story in their own
words — without note cards — yet get all the details and concepts
right. And they must do it in a toga, that less-than-flattering uniform of the
Greeks. No Snoopy bedsheets, either.
If it all seems a bit silly and
absurd, there's a seriousness of purpose here, Whittaker says. One aim of Jesuit
education is to mold students' character and give them the tools to "set the
world on fire". By the end of the class, students should be able to keep their
nerve and stay focused.
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