I just got back from a 3 1/2 hour dinner in a private room of a very nice restaurant here in Waco, Texas with the “Self-Selected Aristocratic Order of the Vital Remnants.” That’s the name of the ISI Group at Baylor. Before I go on and describe what this group does, let me remind you that this group has been around for about 2-3 years and didn’t really know anything about ISI at all until about a year ago. And then only recently in the past couple months did they affiliate their group as an official ISI Group.
When I asked their president, Tyler, a few months ago, “Why did you all start this group in the first place?” His answer was something like, “We weren’t getting enough academic discipline and intellectual rigor in the classroom and we were all seeking further intellectual stimulation.” So, they came up with this idea all on their own, but it’s completely in line with all that ISI hopes our groups might do.
Our dinner meeting tonight resembles something of what most of their meetings are like, except they usually meet at someone’s house and do this. This time, they got the royal ISI treatment over a very nice (and expensive) dinner. The dinner was worth every penny.
They usually meet once a week, on a Sunday evening, and one or two of the members presents a paper (the members by the way are “selected” by the group – you can’t just join this group, you have to be invited, or rather “selected”). They read the paper aloud (it’s about 2-3 pages at most). As they are reading it, other members are taking notes. I was wondering what they were up to at first. What are they writing? They were editing the paper right there on the spot, and as soon as the writer was done reading his paper, one other member became a “moderator” and kept the reactions in order so that a chaotic conversation doesn’t overtake the purpose of the meeting. Each member that had criticism of the paper would give their thoughts and a discussion would follow that involved virtually everyone present.
The criticism involved not only the ideas, but also critique of the grammar and the rhetoric. In effect, it was a critique not only of the author’s personal ideas and perspectives, but also a literary criticism. They talked about semantics. They critiqued the writing. And, they did this to the writer’s benefit: to help them improve putting their ideas together as well as improve their writing style. The ultimate goal for most of these papers is that throughout the course of the semester, the final editing versions of the paper (which often go through several drafts and are scrutinized several times) are put into their publication, of which 3,000 copies are distributed at some point during the semester.
Yes, these guys do this for fun. And, it was fun. It was a great way to form fellowship, engage in ideas, and improve themselves academically and as true budding intellectuals. I was thoroughly impressed. I have been at ISI for 2 years visiting groups and each one is unique. Tonight was another example – I had heard a lot about this group from my colleague, Brian Embry because he was a part of this group (and now I understand Brian so much more after experiencing what they actually do as a group). It’s a very cultivating experience. And, after 2 years of working for ISI, this was in fact the most intellectually stimulating group I have seen. What impresses me more is that they came up with this idea without even knowing what ISI was. But this is something ISI would want to see many of our groups doing. I have now placed this group up on an elite pedestal to admire and perhaps use as an example to give other groups ideas of what they might do.
Intellectually stimulated is an understatment. Impressive, admirable, and remarkable are words that barely describe my impressions about this group. And I’m sure if they read this blog, they’d be scrutinizing every sentence. It would only be to my benefit of course. Then again, this is only a blog.