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If you attended the Family Business Meeting back in January, you may remember Susie reading a letter written by Jill Talley about a visit they took to a college campus. It turned out to be a kind of magical moment, so we thought we’d share the letter with you again, to inspire you about classical education, and cheer you on in the good work you are doing with your kids! Here is Jill's account of their experience:
Todd and I just got back from a very memorable visit to a small liberal arts college located very nearby. Thomas Aquinas College is in Santa Paula, just a few short miles from Ojai. We arranged our visit with the admissions office a week before coming and honestly, we’ve hardly seen such a beautiful place with its dome and bell tower standing out above the treetops along Highway 150. Our visit turned into a 3-hour impromptu question and answer session with staff, professors (they call their professors “tutors” at the school) and students. We wanted to hear about their college, but most interesting was that they wanted to hear about SLO Classical Academy and the kind of education we were offering.
Several times they noted that our school was “so far ahead” in the model we provide with our small classroom size, our emphasis on the great books and our core upper level classes like Latin and Logic. We also told them about our History Day extravaganzas and they just smiled and said how incredible it is that a small school can pull something like that off year after year! “Bet the kids really ‘get’ the history”), they said.
It was a great afternoon and we loved that the College’s students were eager to discuss what they were learning as we chatted with them over lunch, on finals week no less! However, the exchange that hit home the most for us came as we were just about ready to leave. Todd asked the admissions director about how successfully classically educated college students get hired after graduation. The admissions director’s answer was awesome. He said that over the years, but increasingly over the last several years he has had CEOs of large companies tell him they always flag applicants from Thomas Aquinas as “keepers”. These business leaders said they’ve learned from experience that when you have an individual who can think critically, you can teach that person almost anything.
{the campus of Thomas Aquinas College, source}
Wow, powerful words. Thank you for sharing this, Jill! We have a lot to look forward to as our kids grow and continue in the classical model, don’t we? Parents, we hope you are encouraged by the praise our school is receiving from others, and by testimonials like this about how classically educated students are not only thriving, but are sought out by by business leaders.
We also hope you will be back with us next year, as we carry on in developing and building upon this classical foundation. Re-enrollment continues through the end of this month, so now is the time to get those forms in!
