Path to Wisdom

The path that our new Millis Institute students will begin to engage this Semester ultimately leads to wisdom. It’s a different path than what some are used to, as it focuses more on cultivating habits of thinking than on specialised knowledge and skills for a particular job. On Monday we invited high school students to begin familiarising themselves with a Millis Institute-style liberal arts education and to get a glimpse of where it leads. Over 200 students from Brisbane Christian College, Citipointe Christian College, Northside Christian College and Nambour Christian College participated in the first session of a program we call “Path to Wisdom.” Given our commitment to wrestling with big questions, Year 7-10 students considered “What is freedom?” and Year 11-12 students discussed “What is truth?” At various points throughout the event, students read and discussed classic texts such as Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in the Republic and the bishop’s relationship with Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. Led by Dr Darren Iselin, Mr David Benson and me, participants also analysed Maya Angelou’s powerful poem “Caged Bird” and Raphael's painting "The School of Athens." The goal was to challenge, stimulate and expose students to a different approach to education, one focused on slowly cultivating deep habits of thinking, communicating, problem-solving, and asking questions. The next session of the Path to Wisdom, which is being planned for Semester 2 of 2016, will address how to write effectively (Years 7-10) and the basis of ethics (Years 11-12).