Senior Ajax Fu founded the Aletheas club his freshman year to share his long-time interest in the Classics and make learning the Classics more accessible.
“Philosophy and Classics try to ask really interesting questions about the world and people and what it means to be human. It’s what mankind has been asking forever, and this club is a glimpse into subjects that are inherent to experiencing life itself. So, we think it’s important for everybody to have access to it,” Fu said.
Aletheas’ objective is to expose younger students to ancient literature, language, and philosophy. They create weekly lessons, with topics varying from Greek architecture to Latin. Even though the lessons are catered towards middle schoolers, anyone interested in learning more about the Classics is welcome to participate. “We’re a program that started to teach Classics, philosophy, and other under-taught subjects like those to any students we can. We teach free classes through Zoom because we think they’re really important for development,” Fu explained.
Each club meeting looks different, but they all revolve around planning curriculum. “When we get together as a club, we work on our upcoming classes by planning the lessons, presentations, and material we’re going to teach. We also have other people working on more logistics stuff like outreach, trying to reach as many students as we can.” Fu said.
From managing club meetings to handling the website to teaching classes, each member of the club contributes. “Cooper Jones and Sina Maghsoodnia just started teaching a class on moral dilemmas. I taught classes on cool languages like ancient Greek, and I’m going to teach a class on epistemology, which is the philosophy of knowledge. Jude Easom is in charge of outreach and Abby Ko handles the website. We all play an important role,” said Fu.
Fu encourages everyone to be curious about the Classics. “If everybody, especially from a younger age, was able to get access to these fields that we all, inherently deserve to learn from, our world will become a slightly better place. I hope we can teach people to be thoughtful and never let go of that curiosity.”
The Aletheas Club meet every Friday in F-19.
