In the Lower and Middle Schools the programme runs each week in three different groups across Years 7 to 11. Any boy is welcome to attend who wants to engage intellectually. These sessions are usually led by a teacher. There are also several set-piece events each term, which boys with academic scholarships are expected to attend. In the Upper School the programme continues, with more emphasis given to entering essay competitions.
Lower School What has cooking got to do with evolution? Does art have any boundaries? What is the relationship between happiness and wealth? What’s 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. Middle School There are two weekly, voluntary sessions, each dealing with the same topic so that as many boys can attend as possible. In addition, each term there are lectures, seminars and panels that 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. ‘The concept behind the Scholars’ Programme is that it wants to make us really think about things outside of ordinary GCSE work, such as philosophy and politics, in order to give us a wider understanding of how our government and the outside world works, as well as to challenge us so that we don’t get bored with our normal syllabus.’ Freddie Leslie, 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. He went on to become a Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University but unfortunately died in his early 30s. There are essays related to the topics in
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