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The original purpose of theunexaminedcurriculum.com was to stimulate discussion about the merits and shortcomings of the SJC program and its educational philosophy. I hoped that prospective students, philosophers of education, and SJC students and faculty would respond with constructive comments and critical exegesis. Unfortunately, while I have had many fine exchanges with the first two groups (including individuals who disagreed with my theses), I have had nothing but bad experiences with SJC students and tutors.
To begin, SJC faculty members have completely ignored my email request, sent to some tutors twice, for feedback. Oddly, not a single tutor came to the defense of the institution—not a single tutor has scratched the Socratic itch and responded. SJC students, on the other hand, have sent an overwhelming number of emails; unfortunately, these emails have been invariably hostile, mean, vulgar, full of ad hominem attacks and—sometimes—personal threats. This came as quite a surprise given SJC’s academic goal of instilling in students “a deepened capacity for reflective thought, […] an abiding love of serious conversation, and a lasting love of inquiry.”
On this page, I post some of the emails that SJC students have sent me. The reason is simply because they strongly support my claim that SJC is doing its students a disservice. Indeed, SJC not merely fails to teach them the academic skills they need to succeed (negative aspect), but inculcates them with loads of propagandic nonsense about the superiority of the institution and its capital-‘g’ “Great Books” program (positive aspect). As the Miscellaneous Stuff page states, John Agresto is a paradigm.
Although, in my experience, many SJC students are ambivalent about the SJC program at first, after two or three years at SJC many become ardent triumphalists of SJC doctrine, dogmatic and obdurate in their allegiance to the school, vociferous mouthpieces of SJC propaganda (see any SJC publication, such as The College). None of the emails that I've received enunciate arguments either for the SJC educational philosophy or against my thesis. Rather, they simply assert in nearly the exact same words and phrases that SJC is superior to other forms of liberal education. These words and phrases, I have discovered, come directly from articles published on the SJC website and SJC propaganda videos.
The reader can find these emails and my comments on them here.