The School of Rhetoric
Do you speak well?
By "speak well", not only: "Do you speak eloquently, with poise, good diction, and a winsome presence?" but also: "Do you present your knowledge of the truth truthfully, humbly inviting your listener to consider and embrace both what you say and the pursuit of truth that led you to say it?"
Quintillian saw as the aim of education, ‘The good man speaking well,' and we think that means answering ‘Yes' to both of those questions above. That is our goal for our students in the School of Rhetoric. When they do so, they will find themselves in positions of leadership in any endeavor, whether it is in the sciences, the humanities, business, politics, or the arts.
What does this look like at Regents?
- Much of our students' learning is around oval Harkness tables in discussion (and sometimes argument!) with one another and teachers.
- Our students work and rework themes written on subjects in the Humanities until both the form and substance of their thoughts are eloquent and persuasive.
- Even in math and science courses, students learn to express their understanding of difficult concepts with words as well as through successful calculation and experiment.
- In what has become a meaningful rite of passage, each senior, in public, presents and defends a researched thesis before a panel of informed judges.
- Our students examine the Western tradition of art, history, literature, theology and philosophy chronologically, recognizing the "Great Conversation" of the ages-and considering what it means to participate in it.
- Our classes are rigorous, but not 'hard just to be hard': we cannot articulate more than we understand, and we cannot understand what we have not wrestled with: our world is a complex, challenging world--understanding it is unavoidably difficult.
