These concerns are intrinsic to human nature and essential to personal growth. But to confront these concerns, one needs an environment that is nurturing and challenging, flexible and rigorous. To look closely at Shimer College is to examine more than 140 years of history, tradition, and academic excellence and the highest ideas of the liberal arts education. The College is a unique four-year liberal arts institution. It is one of a handful of schools with an integrated curriculum based upon the reading of original source materials.
Classes are small to facilitate discussion and shared inquiry.
It is the purpose of the College to teach people how to think, not what to think, and to develop the skills of clear expression, analytical reasoning, and logical presentation. The College believes that education is more than the transmission of facts or the imparting of vocational skills. At Shimer the instructor is a guide who provokes questions, suggests approaches to the materials, and directs the flow of conversation. The process of learning takes place, not when the instructor tells a student what to think, but when students explore the readings under consideration. Through the process of shared inquiry and formal discussion, students and teachers become partners in the learning experience.