Introducing God's Harvard: Patrick Henry College

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<p>[Introducing</a> God’s <i>new</i> Harvard](<a href=“Home - WND”>Introducing God's new Harvard)</p>

<p>Introducing God’s new Harvard
Patrick Henry College’s goal is launching leaders for Christ</p>

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<p>Posted: March 12, 2008
3:52 pm Eastern</p>

<p>© 2008 WorldNetDaily </p>

<p>By Alyssa Farah</p>

<p>PURCELLVILLE, Va. – Matthew du Mee was one of more than 2 million college-bound students in 2001 to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT.</p>

<p>But he was one of only a tiny handful who received a perfect score.</p>

<p>Within weeks, the nation’s most prestigious schools – Harvard, Yale, and Stanford among them – began courting him. Du Mee turned them all down, choosing instead a tiny new school with, at the time, fewer than 100 students, no accreditation and no name outside of homeschooling circles.</p>

<p>The school was Patrick Henry College, created as haven of sorts for the nation’s brightest homeschooled students, and which has, in seven ensuing years, grown into a well-known and influential evangelical school purposed to train Christian leaders for high level service in the public square. Its rigorous academic programs, abundant Capitol Hill apprenticeships, and deep homeschooling ties led to its being dubbed “God’s Harvard” in a new book by Washington Post religion reporter Hanna Rosin.</p>

<p>Located in the small town of Purcellville, Va., on the rural outskirts of Washington, D.C., Patrick Henry College is a classical Christian liberal arts college created for students seeking an academically demanding education at a school forged from America’s founding principles and powered by passionate Christian discipleship.</p>

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<p>Wow. . . . I guess this is proof that even perfect scorers can be complete morons. He turned down the best schools in the nation to go to a COMMUNITY COLLEGE? A) How is this person able to dress himself, B) how is a community college a new Harvard??</p>

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<p>brainwashing machinese…</p>

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<p>“He turned down the best schools in the nations to go to a COMMUNITY COLLEGE?”</p>

<p>Patrick Henry College, a religious school that lacks regional accreditation, is not a community college. There is a Patrick Henry Community College but that is not the school to which the linked article refers.</p>

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<p>Hm, I had no idea there was a PHCC.</p>

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<p>I call fake story regarding Du Mee.</p>

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<p>collegeboard.com only gives the CC, I can’t find the real one!</p>

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<p>I don’t call fake, it happen pretty often I think.</p>

<p>I know someone at my school who had a 4.0 UW/36 ACT/captain of Academic Decathlon team that placed 2nd in the U.S./every EC possible/National Merit Finalist/etc. and chose to go to a local university (albeit a decent one - Creighton University). I know of a similar instance this year. Some people don’t care about the prestige. He’s studying to become a teacher, so the ROI from a more elite university wouldn’t be worth the costs.</p>

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<p>It’s a terrible shame that there’s not some place on our computer-machines that we can go that has information on EVERYTHING…</p>

<p>Google, first hit:
[PHC</a> | Patrick Henry College](<a href=“http://www.phc.edu/]PHC”>http://www.phc.edu/)</p>

<p>Wiki, first hit:
[Patrick</a> Henry College - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Henry_College]Patrick”>Patrick Henry College - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Amazing, this “internet” invention…</p>

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<p>wow…I don’t mean to bash anyone’s religious beliefs but this is just stupid…</p>

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<p>HAHA awesome! thanks for posting… lawl i love people they’re so FUNNY!</p>

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<p>The New Yorker ran an interesting article about Patrick Henry a few years ago.
[Annals</a> of Education: God and Country: The New Yorker](<a href=“http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/06/27/050627fa_fact]Annals”>God and Country | The New Yorker)
On rereading it, it appears that a good chunk of the article refers to the same Mathew du Mee.</p>

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<p>Call me a godless secularist, but IMO those two things are incompatible. A liberal arts education (even at universities and colleges with a religious affiliation) is about critical thinking, skeptical inquiry and intellectual freedom. It is not about indoctrination into a very narrow and self-defining “faith-based” worldview.</p>

<p>Call that place whatever you want; just don’t call it a “liberal arts college.”</p>

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<p>I think I read that a number of the professors already bailed out because of excessive restrictions on academic freedom.</p>

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<p>I can understand why people would sneer at those who would choose to go to this college instead of Ivies.</p>

<p>But it really depends on what the individual VALUES in life.</p>

<p>Also, you have to consider the fact that people like Matthew KNOW the value of schools they select over others because they already have a PLAN for their own careers.</p>

<p>It would then be useful to readers if they would consider what value Patrick Henry College provides to students. In other words, look at what students get out of enrolling for the money they provide…</p>

<p>Consider : </p>

<ul>
<li><p>Many Patrick Henry College (PHC) graduates have gone on to prestigious graduate schools, including Harvard Law, and presently hold positions in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court, the FBI, National Geographic, Fox News and throughout the intelligence community, to name a few. </p></li>
<li><p>Ninety percent of our students come from homeschooling backgrounds, and are very motivated. Most students that come to PHC have a vision to go out into the public square and make an impact – make a difference. </p></li>
<li><p>With a student body now exceeding 300 students, and formal accreditation in place from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS), the college is solidifying master plans to expand both its campus and enrollment rolls. PHC’s faculty presently consists of 20 full time professors, 19 of whom hold doctorates in their disciplines, and the college continues to attract high profile Christian academics. </p></li>
<li><p>In recent months, it welcomed to its faculty Dr. John Warwick Montgomery, an internationally renowned Christian apologist, famed debater, and author of more than 40 books. He joins a faculty that already includes acclaimed author and cultural commentator, Dr. Gene Edward Veith, formerly World Magazine’s culture editor and one of the nation’s leading experts on classical learning. Also in residence is award-winning, former Time Magazine senior correspondent and best-selling author, Dr. David Aikman. In early 2006, the college also welcomed aboard as its new president Dr. Graham Walker, a highly regarded Christian scholar and longtime educator. </p></li>
<li><p>Amid the many important changes and additions, one thing has remained constant: PHC continues to burnish its reputation as a “debaters’ college.” Its legal debate teams have not only beaten Oxford University twice, they’ve captured back-to-back national moot court championships (2005-2006), and for the past two years have earned more individual speaker and team trophies at moot court nationals than any other college. </p></li>
<li><p>To protect itself from government regulations and thereby safeguard its liberty to teach from a distinctly Christian worldview, the College operates with a no-debt policy and accepts no government funding. Its operations and facilities are funded entirely through donations. </p></li>
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<p>I’d say this is impressive accomplishment for a small school that refuses to accept taxpayer funds.</p>

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<p>I would also call into question the premise that when you go to a secular school, you automatically get to learn critical thinking, skeptical inquiry and have intellectual freedom. </p>

<p>It ain’t necessarily so. Many secular colleges CLAIM to provide this kind of education but IN PRACTICE, do not.</p>

<p>I’d rather a college tells you up front what they WILL teach you and what you should expect than for it to advertise some “ideal” and not meet it in practice.</p>

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<p>“…formal accreditation in place from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS)…”</p>

<p>This “accreditation” is meaningless if a student ever wants to transfer to another college. PHC lacks the regional accreditation that almost all colleges and high schools, including plenty of Christian schools, enjoy.</p>

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<p>Just goes to prove you can be “book smart” and still have no common sense.</p>

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<p>Before attending this school, students must acknowledge that “Satan exists as a personal, malevolent being who acts as tempter and accuser, for whom Hell, the place of eternal punishment, was prepared, where all who die outside of Christ shall be confined in conscious torment for eternity”</p>

<p>wow, half the reason college is so important is because one gets to experience a diversity of beliefs and religions. I think PHC would inhibit a person’s transition into the realworld. They were already likely homeschooled. if they were homeschooled and then went to PHC and then went into the real world and had to interact with an athiest, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, etc… I can see some problems happening.</p>

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<p>A few comments :</p>

<p>1) The fact that it is not accredited by some organization does not necessarily mean that the Patrick Henry student will not be accepted by other colleges. The article states plainly and clearly that GRADUATES of this college go on to attend some of the best graduate schools in the country. So this issue is moot.</p>

<p>2) I do not get the sarcastic sneering at calling students who attend this college people with no common sense. Why is that ? Because they put their money where their personal beliefs are ? What rule in the world tells us that if you enrolled in a college that has rigorous academics without the politically correct fluff that many colleges today offer, you therefore have lost your common sense ?</p>

<p>3) The fact that the college HOLDS certain truths to be true does not mean that they do not STUDY or interact with people of other beliefs. A rigorous academics WILL in fact study and discuss and even allow outside visitors who do not hold your beliefs to come and reason with you to present his own point of view. I don’t see any school rule in PHC that states that atheists like Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins can’t be invited to lecture in their school.</p>

<p>4) The fact that PHC students actually go outside their college and DEBATE what they believe ( e.g. with students of Oxford Unviersity for instance ) is a sign of openness to other worldviews. The onus is on the debater on the other side to show (WITH REASON ) that the worldview PHC holds is invalid. </p>

<p>5) If the school were so parochial and isolated as some people might want to suggest, how do you explain the fact that The New Yorker reported in 2005 that Patrick Henry College students have taken between one and five of the White House internships in each of the past five years – “roughly the same as Georgetown.” ?</p>

<p>That’s an impressive acceptance rate for the amount of money that the students pay.</p>

<p>Sneering at this school is only justified IMHO when they don’t produce quality graduates. All evidence suggests that their education is superior and up to standards with the best of them.</p>