A Liberal Arts
college in the US, with two campuses:
one in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and a needlessly preppy
one, populated mostly by sophists. Famous for its approach to liberal arts, focus on great books, and its incredibly uncomfortable, but visually iconic, "Johnnie" chairs. Blackboards are everywhere at the
college, and any attempt to change this policy is always crushed with extreme prejudice.
Students of the
college are called Johnnies., and in place of professors, instructors are called tutors. This is because they are supposed to be on the journey of intellectual discovery with the students, rather than talking down to them. This is, most certainly, always the case, and tutors have never been known to give lectures in the middle of class to explain exactly why a particular school of thought is fundamentally incorrect because they entirely disregard the writings of
one obscure thinker, the essays of whom said tutor will be happy to provide to the interested.
St. John's has no tests or exams. All students are evaluated through their writing and performance in discussion. To deal with the stress and
anxiety which comes with much of the work of the
college, many Johnnies smoke and engage in extreme forms of Bacchic revelry on a weekly to biweekly basis.
Contrary to popular belief regarding liberal arts degrees, Johnnies
go into a variety of fields, mostly in education, academia, or corporate sophistry(commonly known to the uninitiated as the legal profession).
"Where are you going to
college again?"
"Oh, I go to St. John's
College in Santa Fe."
"Never heard of it."
"I'm not surprised."
Family member:"What do you guys even do at St. John's?"
Johnnie who has learned that most people are either totally disinterested in the truly meaningful parts of their studies and has lost all
faith in the ability of most people to have serious conversations: "We read lots of books."
