Standing on Shoulders

Imagine a classroom where books and ideas from the world’s greatest minds are freely examined in lively discussions. Fill that classroom with a wide range of students spanning a 25-year period. Sit in on a candid conversation between these bright, young thinkers, and see where their insights take you. In Standing on Shoulders, Peter Bachmann embarks on just such an invigorating liberal arts journey, and invites us to join the exploration. Using material gleaned from over 400 student papers from the Great Books class he teaches at Flintridge Preparatory School, Bachman weaves together a virtual dialogue between himself and his students that transcends time and place. Together they examine the pertinence of past wisdom to the complex digital age of today, questioning and affirming the relevance of Aristotle, Shakespeare, Thoreau, and others as they attempt to define “the good life.” Thinkers from all walks of life and educational backgrounds will find relevance and resonance in these dialogues, and may well begin to reexamine the world’s oldest questions from a fresh, individual perspective.