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Following Tuesday’s classes, students on the California High School Summer Program enjoyed an afternoon of recreation, then listened to an inspirational lecture on Art and Beauty.

While 91���� mainly employs Socratic seminars in its classrooms, the College recognizes that lectures are a valuable tool for the acquisition of knowledge. It further holds that a well-rounded individual will have some familiarity with the arts and, therefore, offers lectures and concerts fortnightly throughout the academic year. Blending the two into one, tutor Dr. John Nieto gave an afternoon talk in St. Cecilia Hall’s Fritz B. Burns Auditorium on “Art and Beauty,” preparing students for their trip to the  and  on Thursday.

Dr. Nieto examined the nature and properties of beauty, stressing the communal immersion that art offers to its viewers. “We experience here a pleasure that transcends our individuality, something sensible that we can enjoy in common,” explained Mr. Nieto. “Other sensible things, such as food, can only be enjoyed most properly by one person taking part for himself, and another person taking another part for himself. But in music, or painting, or poetry, we can experience and enjoy the very same object, because our interaction with the object does not demand that we change that object in any way. We can contemplate that object together.” He encouraged students to be patient when examining a work of art, since true appreciation can only come from a detailed look at its integrity, clarity, and proportion, the three properties of the beautiful.

Following the lecture Q&A, the programmers ate pasta for dinner, then ran to St. Bernardine of Siena Library to study their last few propositions from Book I of Euclid’s Elements. From there, they headed to the athletic field for a soccer match, prefects versus programmers. The latter gave it their all, and their classmates cheered them on from the sidelines, led by student Kevin M., chanting “I believe that we will win!” Even with all the rousing support from the stands, though, the prefect team proved unstoppable, besting the programmers by a final score of 7–0.

Tired from playing and cheering, the programmers headed back to the residence halls and had chicken nuggets for the boys, charcuterie boards for the girls, and a good night’s rest for all. Today they have only one class, then head off campus for an afternoon full of art and music, so check back in with the Summer Blog later today to keep up with their adventures!

More photos from the High School Summer Program

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