In the Lower and Middle Schools the programme runs each week in three different groups across Years 7 to 11. All students are welcome. An academic scholarship is not required; what is needed, however, is an eagerness to engage intellectually. The teacher-led sessions – wide-ranging as they are – embody free learning. There are also set-piece events each term which students with academic scholarships are expected to attend. In the Upper School the programme continues, with more emphasis given to one-to-one tutorials and essay competitions.
Lower School What has cooking to do with evolution? Why is freedom so attractive and so dangerous? Can we trust our senses? If not, why not? What is the point of learning foreign languages? These are just some of the topics covered in Lower School Scholars’ Programme sessions. Other subjects have included: the ethics of eating meat; the impossibility of moral responsibility; real zoos or virtual zoos; the exploding head effect; the nature of inflation; the differences between science and technology; the importance of war; politics and leadership in the age of social media. Middle School There are two weekly, voluntary sessions, each dealing with the same topic (so that as many – very busy – students can attend as possible). In addition, there are a number of lectures, seminars, or panels that academic scholars are expected to attend. The weekly sessions cover basic logic, some political philosophy – Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Mill and Marx –, problems in epistemology (e.g. what is necessary? What is contingent?)
and the philosophy of science, as well as issues in metaphysics, such as personal identity, consciousness, free will. The lecture/seminar series might include a lecture on, for instance, The Future of Education…The Future of Careers, or a seminar – led by both teachers and/or students – on Gender or Immigration or The Absurd or Political Satire. ‘The Scholars’ Programme gives me a time and place to think about and consider complex issues that are not really covered in the curriculum, often being philosophical, ethical and abstract in nature. Whilst the issues rarely have a resolute answer, the attempt to find an answer is thought- provoking, usually leading on to more intriguing questions.’ Ned, Year 11 The Gareth Evans Middle School Essay Competition This competition is named after one of the greatest intellectuals to have attended the College. Gareth Evans left Dulwich in 1963 and went up to University College, Oxford to read PPE. He achieved the highest ever mark in the PPE final examinations.
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