Intellectual Curiosity

 

Guerin Catholic Junior Classical League recently hosted my friend Prof. Bronwen Wickkiser, chair of Classics at Wabash College, to deliver a talk titled "Medicine and Miracle in Greco-Roman Antiquity" (full video linked below). Bronwen and I first met when we were in graduate school at The University of Texas in Austin back in the mid-90s, and those were heady days indeed as we learned from and worked alongside scholars such as Peter Green, Michael Gagarin, Paul Woodruff, Karl Galinsky, Paula Perlman, Thomas Palaima, M. Gwyn Morgan, Douglass Parker, Andrew Riggsby, Gareth Morgan, and many others, including current Classics chair Lesley Dean-Jones.  Yet this was not just a reunion for two former graduate school office mates.  It was a chance for our high school students to experience a scholar of the first rank and for that scholar to interact with highly curious young people.

Just a few of the students who filled our media center for Prof. Wickkiser's talk

One of our GCJCL leaders introduces our speaker and opens with prayer

Prof. Wickkiser began with a famous fresco of Iapyx healing Aeneas as the goddess Venus looks on.  She explained the roles of both human and divine healers in antiquity, pointing out the easy interaction among them in both literature and the graphic art of frescoes and vase paintings.

A student prepares to ask Prof. Wickkiser a question

She walked us through sculptures related to the healing arts of antiquity and explored with us in detail some of the dedications to Asklepios from his sanctuary in Epidauros.  Everyone was intrigued by the records of miraculous healings, some of which took place in quite dramatic ways.

Much ancient art depicts various aspects of the healing arts

Professor Wickkiser discussing various medical implements that have survived from antiquity

I was fascinated by the content of her talk, to be sure, but I could not help observing the atmosphere of the event produced by the interactions between professor and students.  Prof. Wickkiser did not merely lecture, but rather asked questions that drew her audience into an already engaging presentation, and the students were more than eager to respond with answers.  They then returned the favor by asking, even after a full day of academic study, provocative questions of the professor throughout the talk.  Yet one of the most important aspects of the afternoon was what one of our science teachers pointed out to me afterward.  She observed that Prof. Wickkiser did not always have an answer for some of our students' questions and would respond by saying something like, "That is a really good question.  I had not thought about that, but that is very interesting to consider."  Perhaps even more valuable than a presentation on ancient medicine was the opportunity for intellectually curious students to see modeled that same intellectual curiosity by a scholar.  This, more than test scores of any kind, is the heart of true education.

Bronwen Wickkiser and Steve Perkins (Guerin Latin Teacher)

Former grad school office mates clowning around

Click here for Prof. Wickkiser's full presentation

Tools of the Trade

In A Primer for Philosophy & Education, Samuel Rocha links two fields of human endeavor that may, to the contemporary mind, have little to do with each other.  We all know what education is, right?  But philosophy, isn't that something for the uber-nerdy?  Don't you have to be some kind of, well, Plato to engage in philosophy?

As its Greek etymology shows, philosophy is nothing more, and nothing less, than the love of wisdom.  Because of this, Rocha encourages us that "Erudition is not necessary for original philosophy.  [Y]ou will not need encyclopedic stores of authors and titles of books you most likely haven't read.  You will need only a clear, curious mind and a heart that is passionate and wild enough to sustain and feed a lively, probing imagination.  (pp. 14, 15)

Thinking philosophically is the heart of the work required to master the craft ofeducation.  You do not need any tools beyond what Rocha has laid out, but allow me to offer a few additional words of advice.

Nurture your own childlike sense of wonder.  I have been engaged in the study of Latin and Classical Studies for thirty years, but I continue to be amazed at a turn of phrase in Ovid or Vergil.  My students ask questions that I have never considered, and suddenly I want to know, too.  A text I have read countless times takes on a new meaning and relevance because I am reading it this day with this group of people as opposed to yesterday with someone else.  Rocha observes, "The ordinary, when attended to closely and with care, is extraordinary all on its own -- and we are educated by it."  (p.16)

Ask provocative questions of your colleagues.  Ask them off-the-wall things.  Don't merely start discussions, provoke them.  See what happens.  I have been blessed to enjoy some of the most thoughtful colleagues where I teach.  I have had scintillating conversations during passing periods, at the copy machine, and in the hall after school with colleagues in the Social Studies, English, Science, and Math departments.

Don't let the details get you down.  I was a good student growing up, and getting my homework done was just a part of who I was.  I had a revelatory moment, though, as a freshman at Indiana University.  I was sitting in Prof. Betty Rose Nagle's class on Cicero and thinking, "I wish this class would end so I could get back to my room and work on an assignment for this class."  The absurdity hit me with a flash.  The assignment was meant to complement the class.  The class was the thing, not the assignment.  I was letting the details get in the way.  Your grading will get done.  Copies will get made for the quiz.  If there is a good, deep, philosophical discussion going on, jump in with both feet.  This is part of the work you must do to develop your craft.

At the end of the day, ask what it is your students really need from you.  Anyone can make cutouts and handouts and PowerPoint presentations.  What do they need that only you can offer?  You must discover this, and it can only be done through philosophical reflection and exploration, which, fortunately, is open to anyone with a curious mind, a passionate heart, and a probing imagination.