Humanities Day at Ridgeview Classical Schools

Ridgeview Classical Schools in Fort Collins hosted their first Humanities Day on Saturday. I attended, along with my college-age daughter. Incidentally, my daughter plans to be a high school English someday, so it was interesting to get her perspective on the day's sessions.

First, to understand Ridgeview Classical's approach to education, you should read Dr. Florian Hild's, "Doing Literature" article in the school's newspaper, The Conversation. Students at RCS are familiar with discussion as a way to better understand the text and there is an emphasis on understanding why the author wrote the piece.

The format for the two sessions at Humanities Day was the presenter reading an original work for 20-30 minutes and then a discussion on it. This format modeled the RCS philosophy. The piece that was read built a case with arguments, research findings, citations and quotes. In the sessions I attended, much of the piece was focused on the actual quotes used by people present at the time. For example, the quotes of people who were alive and somehow associated with the French Revolution. RCS believes in using original texts to study and formulate beliefs.

Parents, students, alumni and community members attended Humanities Day. My daughter was impressed with the types of questions posed by current RCS students and the depth of knowledge they expressed. Moreover, I thought it was an excellent way to demonstrate to parents what RCS believes about education rather than simply expressing beliefs in writing. There were several mentions of continuing to hold an annual Humanities Day at Ridgeview Classical Schools. It'd be well worth your time to participate next year!