Sf88: Fill & Download for Free

I graduated from St. John's in Santa Fe in 1988.Seminars are guided by two Tutors around a large table with about 16 students, sometimes more, sometimes less. There is usually a more senior and experienced Tutor and a more junior and less experienced Tutor, but not always. Between them they will have discussed the material and decided on how they want to approach the material and perhaps some ideas they think are critical be considered in the discussion - though, in fact, these ideas may never be broached during the seminar.The Tutors may decide between them who will ask the opening question, or perhaps even offer the question to a student to ask.The question itself isn't always a whodunit?, or what is the speed of a swallow travelling south?, but more often it is prefaced with a context. For instance: The question in one of the Plato's Republic seminars might be: Is the Republic a refutation to Homer's argument suggesting that Justice is more important than Home?But this question wouldn't be asked up front. Instead the argument would be set out by a Tutor thus:Homer's Odyssey is a story about Odysseus searching for a way to return to Ithaca with such fervor that he "would gladly die if he could but see smoke rising from its rocky shores". This suggests that the most important thing to a man who has suffered everything is to return home, even though his home is infested with competitors seeking to take everything there away including his wife.Plato's Republic seeks to describe a way to organize and govern a society of people for their best interest and quality of life. The Republic suggests that such a society based on Justice is the one which will successfully meet this goal.Now the main points are laid out, the Tutor may ask the question on one versus the other. Then allow students to draw from the text to support or attack the proposition.One could immediately suggest that the Odyssey is also supportive of a Justice based governance that happens to lack its governor, or that Odysseus proves there is no Justice and that desire alone, or will, is the best governing force. Other students might draw from the Republic that the rulers are much like Odysseus in their ability to deceive the populace, but that their motives are pure and based on what Justice would determine is best for all. And thus the discussion for the evening is engaged and continues, for the two plus hours of the Seminar, and quite usually for many hours into the night and successive days until the next Seminar.This is what makes St. John's unique, though not the only such place, where intense substantive discourse continues in every venue of daily life for four years. One is judged, not by clothing or socioeconomic status, intelligence or other subjective phenomenon, but by one's ability to comprehend the issue, take and support a position with original material, and tear down a weaker argument that won't hold against examination. And also in being able to draw on the entire accumulation of material one covers over the course of the program. So Freshmen are not expected to have the examination and defensive skills a Junior or Senior have, but Juniors and Seniors will discuss anything with a Freshman without drawing on material the Freshman has not yet covered.If you choose St. John's and the college chooses you, then you will enter a national community of learners of all ages, experiences and interests who either while a student, or later in all stages of adult life, will be there to engage in discourse with generally earnest effort. There is life after St. John's and we as alumni continue the discussions on our own in national alumni groups - often for the rest of our lives.Best wishes for your intellectual future.Mike David, SF88

I had a job offer to work at the White House pending my Yankee White clearance. I summited my paper work and after several months of waiting at another job I received a call asking me if I was still interested in the job. Which I wasn’t but since I promised and the investigation costed tens of thousands of dollars I told them I would take it. The next question was, “ had I summited my paper work yet?” I replied that I had the day after they asked for it (all 38 pages) and had placed it in the security manager's hand. The fellow on the phone informed me that they had lost it. So, after hearing that the investigation was yet started I felt my obligation to take the job was void so I withdrew my application and spent four years at the best job I ever had.I had security forms (SF88) saved to disk but it would have been a 4–6 Month wait for the clearance and the Agency I was working for had already sent me to 4 months of special training so I was becoming vested with them.