Roosevelt Montás visits St. John’s
In April, Roosevelt Montás, author of the recent book Rescuing Socrates: How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation, visited both the Santa Fe campus and the Annapolis campus to give lectures about the importance of the Great Books and a Liberal Arts education. These two things are, of course, quite near and dear to our hearts at St. John’s. During his time on both campuses, Montás sat down with various different members of the community; he attended a lunch with the Student Committee on Instruction, a lunch with faculty, a mid-morning coffee session with staff members, and community book signings.
In Annapolis, four of our current GI students attended the lunch with Mr. Montás. We all sat together at a large seminar table in Randall Hall along with almost two dozen undergraduates and discussed why the education we are pursuing at St. John’s matters so much. The conversation was riveting. Between the well-formed, poignant questions from the students and the passion, wit, and personal experience of Mr. Montás there was not a moment of silence. After a little over an hour of conversation the undergraduates had to return to class, but the four GI students asked if it would be possible to continue the conversation seeing as we were not under the same time constraint as the undergrads. He graciously accepted. So the five of us all got coffees and sat outside for well over an hour talking about our own educational experiences and our different journeys to St. John’s. It was an incredible opportunity to discuss our own involvement in this community of thinkers, readers, and inquirers, as well as to hear more of Montás’ own reflections on the subject of the Liberal Arts. We all left the conversation feeling invigorated by our mutual love of the Great Books, and in grateful awe of the wisdom Mr. Montás was able to share with us.
If you would like to read more about Roosevelt Montás’ book Rescuing Socrates, you can check out this article written by current Annapolis GI student, Luis Parrales.
If you would like to watch or listen to the lecture that Roosevelt Montás gave at Santa Fe in April, you can check that out here.
