King’s is the proud home to one of Canada’s best Humanities camps for teens, and this summer I got to be the camp’s academic director. This involved selecting a theme, texts, lecturers, and designing the program of activities and workshops (take a look at the official schedule for the program below). As you can probably imagine, the week was a whirlwind ride that did not let up until the very end of our seven-day program.
I’ve been finding it difficult to express how wonderful the students were.
Imagine a group of teens assembling for two-hour lectures on some of the world’s most profound philosophy, poetry, art, and literature. There is not a cell phone in sight. Hands are raised with questions of penetrating insight. Lecturers get so engaged in the discussion, they lose track of time.
It was magic.
I wrote more about the experience here.
The theme, “Rhyme & Reasons,” was about the conflict and relationship between Poetry and Philosophy. “Poetry,” as per the Greek word poesis, stands in for the arts in general, and further for the life of sensation. It’s a conflict between theoretical and tangible experiences, one between the body and the soul.
I got to lecture Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, one of my favourite texts of all time. I had recently taught this text [[the-way-of-wisdom-boethius-consolation-of-philosophy|for the first time at Manitoba Pioneer Camp]], and it was great to go deeper. This time I dared myself to sing some of the poetry. The students were very gracious.
“Humanities for Young People, 2026: Rhyme and Reason.” Week-long humanities summer camp for teens, University of King’s College, July 5–11, 2026.
Photos: Sydney Haines.
