Reflections on the Southern Utah Lyceum
By Sam Cook and Kaleigh Bronson-Cook
Growing up in rural southern Utah doesn’t exactly afford young adults robust opportunities to engage with philosophy before college, that was at least, until the Southern Utah University Philosophy Lyceum. This program had such a profound impact on us personally and so many other students in our area who otherwise wouldn’t have had access to pre-college philosophy. Programs such as the Lyceum, especially in areas like rural Utah, are critical to students not only being able to access philosophy as a discipline but also in building their confidence for success in higher education more broadly. The ability to develop relationships with professors helped us not only see ourselves as philosophers for the first time but also to help us feel at ease in the difficult transition from high school to college.
Many young people have a draw towards philosophy or philosophical thinking, and as such, many seek to scratch that itch by going online to blogs, forums or YouTube videos. While these can be valuable, they do not actively train a student in critically engaging with philosophical content, particularly with primary material. The Lyceum on the other hand, does just that. Through access to the direct materials and patient experts who demonstrate and coach students on how to engage with those materials, students walk away feeling accomplished in truly understanding difficult concepts and thinking about problems in a new way.
Our high school debate team is what sparked our initial interest in philosophical concepts, as there was no philosophy class, club or even topic in any other classes at our school. Unlike many other students, we were lucky enough to become acquainted with the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as we prepared our debate cases. It was an incredibly valuable resource that opened the door to considering philosophical topics in the world, outside of only the competitive high school debate context. Our interest and search for information about philosophy led us to developing a friendship with Dr. Phillips and Dr. Fitzpatrick, who were looking to get the Lyceum started at SUU.
Their mentorship, patience and support made our choice to pursue philosophy after high school an easy one. Because of the Lyceum, we seriously considered philosophy as a viable path of study when we hadn’t before. The low barrier of entry to the Lyceum, including the program and materials being provided at no cost, also ensures that students who may face disproportionate challenges towards philosophy and higher education generally are able to participate. This not only makes for an enriching personal experience for students who otherwise may not have had the means to study philosophy but also diversifies the pool of students interested in the field.
Philosophy is difficult to break into in a rural area as a high school student. Many school districts in rural areas do not emphasize liberal arts, and barely cover other liberal arts like English or History while focusing their limited funding and resources into STEM fields or job training programs. However, programs like the Lyceum help to bridge this opportunity gap. The mentorship provided by Dr. Phillips and Dr. Fitzpatrick was essential for pointing us in the right direction when it came to actually engaging with philosophical content. Rather than just passively consuming philosophical content online, we actively engaged with the arguments in a way that trained us to critically think and see ourselves as doing philosophy rather than just reading it.
Easy access to philosophy and encouraging students to think critically early is more important than ever. Misinformation and propaganda is easily accessed, and online sophistry is the new norm. Students who have a burgeoning interest in philosophical ideas and argument, especially in places like rural Utah without access to pre-college philosophy, will inevitably pursue it online, where there is not nearly the same degree of guidance or help that is available with a program like the Lyceum. Our initial interest included not only the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, but also YouTube videos, blogs, and other online resources. While these resources were valuable, they did not provide the personal element that is essential to developing critical thinking abilities and championing our interests, passions and success in the field.
In hindsight, in person engagement with philosophical works, with someone who helped train us directly on how to interpret and respond to difficult ideas was the best way to prepare ourselves for college. The ongoing informational crisis that we are experiencing on a societal level is harming kids, especially kids who have barriers to academic success including but not limited to students from marginalized communities, students from poor families and students in rural areas. We witnessed this phenomenon firsthand with many of the students that we participated in debate with. Engaging with ideas, and other people, will be an essential piece of the solution to this crisis. Picking apart and examining difficult material is something a lot of students want to do, but aren’t given the opportunity to outside of the internet and some classrooms typically in well-resourced schools.
The impact of having two professional philosophers guide us into philosophy was profound. The mentorship that they provided motivated us to pursue philosophy seriously and helped us find our place in philosophy where we didn’t know there was one before. They were not dismissive of whatever observations we had on the material, however misguided or elementary. This built our confidence in speaking on serious philosophical issues and arguments and lending our unique perspective and understanding to these conversations. The one-on-one relationships that we developed through the Lyceum, both with professors but also with other student participants, cultivated a community of learners who were all committed to understanding the same ideas and concepts. This environment also provided the context with the professors where we could bounce ideas off of someone who seriously understood the material we were reading. This forced us and the other students to more thoroughly engage with the material assigned, in order to actually be able to contribute to the broader conversation.
We strongly encourage any philosopher with an inclination towards public philosophy to seriously consider organizing a Lyceum style program with their institution in collaboration with local high schools and youth serving organizations. We believe, not uninformed by our experience, that it is the moral duty of philosophers to help guide young people towards being critical thinkers, so that they can grow into thoughtful and engaged adults. Lyceum style programs most certainly promote the virtue of philosophical engagement in a time that is increasingly polarized and seemingly thoughtless. Our world could use more philosophers, more lovers of wisdom, and programs like the Lyceum are how we will get there.
