An Education for Life

Over the last two weeks, our seniors have presented their theses much as their predecessors have for the past twenty years. Of course, the notable difference was that all of the presentations this year were streamed live. There is a great deal that is different about a presentation of this kind: the presenter is handicapped by his inability to gauge the effectiveness of his language because he can neither see nor hear his audience. Even the questions, when they eventually come, come absent the character that gives so much away about the intent and motivation of the questioner. Presenting in this fashion is a substitute, but an ungainly and imperfect one. It would have been easy and even reasonable to expect much less from this year’s seniors for two reasons: first, because of the aforementioned technological challenges; second, because weeks of isolation and an inability to work in-person with their advisors was likely to take its toll on student’s morale and motivation.

Instead of two weeks’ worth of disappointing shortcomings, we saw our seniors rise to the challenge. The qualities by which a senior thesis presentation and defense are judged—deportment, decorum, clarity, organization, memory, invention, delivery, and resolution—were, once the technology was accounted for, no less than they would have been had they been presented in the PAC.

With regards to deportment, no student failed to take the presentation or himself seriously. Each treated the central question of what is essential to the good life with the gravity that such a question deserves. While it would be easy to demean a student’s answer to such a question on the basis of his limited life experience, the narratio, that portion of a senior thesis that explains how a student has arrived at his answers, how it fully connects to his life, ably communicated the authenticity of the answers. In all cases, students were respectful of their unseen audience and made every attempt to treat their questions seriously and answer in earnest. Despite so many limitations, deportment never flagged.

Such was also the case with decorum. Despite not having to physically go anywhere, students dressed up for the occasion, they considered their backgrounds, adjusted their prose to fit the occasion, spoke in such a way as to uphold the dignity of the project, and were gracious when uncertain of an audience member’s questions. Neither would it be easy to be contemptuous of their clarity: their speech and enunciation were often better than their bandwidth, they rarely strayed into any ramblings or verbal tics, they placed the proper emphasis on their most important points, and carefully articulated their ideas.

The classical orders of arrangement were easy to identify in nearly every thesis. One could effortlessly recognize the transitions between partitio and confirmatio, between confirmatio and refutatio, and anticipate the progression towards the peroratio. All the parts were present and rightly ordered. Quality sources were thoughtfully used to evidence and illustrate the theses, objections were anticipated, and the modes of appeal (ethos, logos, and pathos) adequately appealed to. Students appeared comfortable presenting, had committed much of their material to memory, and were prepared to thoughtfully answer questions.

Of course, a successful thesis goes well beyond a clever presentation: the quality of an answer, the sources used, and the conviction with which the whole thing is presented and defended matter most. Over the past two weeks we have heard about the love of God, friendship, gratitude, fortitude, self-knowledge and determination, faith, experience, purpose, community, self-reliance, serenity, and the cultivation of a moral sense. We have long noted that as it concerns the senior thesis, there is but one question, and though many themes, an infinite variety of answers arrived at by paths as various as the lives which have hewn them. This senior class was no different in that respect, though they have been exceptional in the difficulties they faced in bringing their theses to a conclusion.

It inspires no small amount of pride to reflect on how well they have done. This moment in our history, though certainly a darker one, has been a time of contrasts. Perhaps it is because we are in greater need of hope and reassurance, but how much more carefully do we listen when a young person, in the midst of these travails speaks of gratitude or self-knowledge and determination? How much more impressed are we in a moment like this to hear them espouse serenity or the cultivation of the moral sense as the answers to how best to live a good life? When all around us there are good reasons to despair, our senior class gave us, wittingly or not, good cause to still hope for a better future.

It has been a central contention that a Ridgeview education is more than vocational training or college preparation. We have even been more apt to speak of the Ridgeview experience than the Ridgeview education believing, as we do, that ‘experience’ is more holistic than ‘education’. For an abundance of reasons, it is an experience, and we regard any education that does not develop one’s sense of how best to live as unsatisfactory. In considering the broad array of sources students appealed to in defending their theses, including Harper Lee, Ray Bradbury, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Viktor Frankl, Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, C.S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Montaigne, Aristotle, Seneca, among so many others, the so-called consolations of the humanities are brought into a proper perspective. Survival does not require a scrutiny of these topics, a vocation can easily be made without them, many colleges will regard them as merely ornamental relics, and yet an education for life cannot be had without them.

I am indebted to our seniors and those faculty who have patiently advised them over the course of this past year. I am grateful to be reminded that intelligent and humane answers to how one can and ought to live are being contemplated by those entering the broader world. I am gratified that they have hope, and that they are proving to be a safe repository for ours.

Well done seniors!

Apta superaque

D. Anderson

Principal