Oxford’s dreaming spires
By: Erica Jacobs
Examiner Columnist
July 28, 2009
Last week, George Mason University students celebrated their time in Exeter College, Oxford, with a closing dinner that mirrored the opening one (“The Harry Potter Experience,” July 8.) There was, however, one huge difference: The Exeter summer program had, in three short weeks, produced a community of scholars and friends, linking Oxford tutors, administrators, students and faculty advisers.
The mood was more wistful and the decibel level higher than during our first dinner. The light still glowed on the elaborate table settings and old mahogany paneling, but we had bonded the way few semester classes bond back home. As the 23 of us (21 students and two teachers) made the rounds, saying goodbye and wishing one another a safe return, I wondered: How did we create a community in so little time? How could our schools at home replicate, in part, that magical unity?
Both middle and secondary schools have experimented with grouping students and teachers to prevent alienation and anonymity. The success of such groupings has been greater for younger students; at Oakton High School, where I taught for many years, that model was abandoned due to lack of student interest. “Who wants to be with the same people all day long?” students explained to me.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a public school that has a community spirit rivaling elite colleges in level of commitment, stages an unusual event during freshman year: The entire ninth grade spends a night in the school building.
It’s like the all-night graduation party, but moved up to the beginning so students can participate in team-building activities with other students, teachers and administrative staff. Students may lose sleep on that fall Friday night, but the friends they gain will last the next four years — and beyond.
Yet socializing creates only one type of community. Oxford inspires its students to aspire to higher educational goals. GMU students initially wondered whether they would be able to measure up to Oxford’s famed academic standards, but every one of them rose to the challenge. The intense intellectual context, which encouraged them to embrace the challenge together, helped create another type of magic.
Matthew Arnold paid homage to Oxford in his poem “Thyrsis,” written in 1865: “And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, /She needs not June for beauty’s heightening … ” Those “dreaming spires” inspire students by asking them to aspire to greater intellectual heights. Note that spire, inspire and aspire share a common linguistic root.
We can import some of that inspiration into our own schools by raising the level of academic aspiration. We might not eat meals together in a “Harry Potter”-like dining hall, but we can feed our spirits during seminars and lectures if the school has encouraged shared, communal goals and a high level of intellectual curiosity and mastery.
For my students, the magic might have begun with the similarity to the “Harry Potter” movie set, but it took permanent hold with the creation of an intellectual community far more powerful than anything in fiction. Not only were they inspired for three weeks, but they continue to carry with them the memory of Oxford’s magical, “dreaming spires.”
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. E-mail her at ejacob1@gmu.edu.
What kids are reading
This weekly column will look at lists of books kids are reading in various categories, including grade level, book genre and data from booksellers. Information on the books below came from Amazon.com’s list of children’s books.
Books on dreams and inspirations
1. “What Color is Your Dream” by Kittie N. Beletic (Ages 4-8)
2. “Hank Finds Inspiration” by Craig Frazier (Ages 4-8)
3. “Seeing the Blue Between: Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets” by Paul B. Janeczko (Ages 9-12)
4. “Prayers on My Pillow: Inspiration for Girls on the Threshold of Change” by Celia Straus (Ages 9-12)
5. “Undefeated: Catching Inspiration and Hope Thrown by Athletes of Integrity” by Dave Branon (Ages 9-12)
6. “Letters from Katrina: Stories of Hope and Inspiration” by Mark Hoog and Kim Lemaire (Ages 9-Adult)
7. “Inspirations: Stories About Women Artists” by Leslie Sills (Ages 9-12)
8. “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christian Teen Talk: Christian Teens Share Their Stories of Support, Inspiration and Growing Up” by Jack Canfield, Mark V. Hansen and Amy Newmark (Young Adult)
More from Erica Jacobs
- Erica Jacobs: What no teacher can prepare for
- Erica Jacobs: Horace's Hope: My educational journey
- Erica Jacobs: I am Horace: More thoughts on Theodore Sizer's progressive Educational Philosophy
- Erica Jacobs: I Am Horace: How Theodore Sizer nailed what really happens in high school
- Erica Jacobs: When words fail us
Follow The Examiner
