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