Palmtree Contemplations

       In the Honors Program, knowledge is encouraged and cultivated the way a tree is cultivated by a gardener.I'm not talking about just any kind of knowledge, though. There are three types: foundational, disciplinary, and interdiscplinary.          Foundational knowledge involves basic facts and concepts. Knowing how to add and subtract is foundational knowledge.         Disciplinary deals with in-depth facts, concepts, and methodologies of at least one subject or discipline. My class in musical theory is teaching me the specifics of my major, music, so I am gaining discplinary knowledge from it.         Interdisciplinary knowledge connects different academic disciplines in different settings. If I take what I am learning in my musical theory, Celtic Christianity, and voice classes and then apply it in a chapel setting I am employing interdisciplinary knowledge.         But how is all this knowledge going to help me in the real world? Just because I can do these things doesn

                                Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque. "I make free adults out of children by means of books and a balance."                 This is the motto for St. John's College, a liberal arts school that is dedicated to teaching students habits of thinking that will last a lifetime. They do this by requiring students to study the works of some of the greatest minds in history, including Homer, Galileo, Austen, Freud, Tolstoy, Mozart, and Augustine, to name a few. Basically, it's a college known for reading good books.        The program differs from John Brown in the fact that it is not a Christian university. It's focus is on providing a good liberal arts education, whereas John Brown is concerned with connecting the biblical idea of redemption with a liberal arts education. At the same time, it promotes a small, concentrated learning environment, something that John Brown also encourages.        Their educational program is also very dif

          "Hey Dad."           "Hey Rachel. How are you sweetheart?"           "Fine. Can I come walk with you?"           "Sure."       Walking with Dad always meant deep conversation over a wide spectrum of topics including faith, the media, forestry, creative writing, history, and sometimes boys. Essentially, we went on a journey together, not knowing if we would discover anything incredible, but open to the possibilities.        If you ask me to define quality education, I think of those walks with my father. With him, teaching was more about imparting wisdom than it was imparting knowledge. In fact, much of my education was like that. Don't misunderstand me. I had to memorize grammar rules, multiplication tables, and the whole Christopher Columbus story just like everyone else. But the staff at my school were more often concerned with preparing us for the world we would face after graduation. They taught us things we would need to k