Mom's Turn: Patrick Henry College

Tyler is spending the night at PHC tonight, so it's my turn to update our digital journal.  After exploring the rural countryside around the college, we spent most of the day on campus meeting students, faculty, and staff.

First of all, "rural" countryside in this case means a town about the size of Durango.  We commented to a student ambassador that the town was quite a bit bigger than we expected.  She chuckled and said most visitors comment about the town's small size.  Guess it's all a matter of perspective!  Purcellville is surrounded by farms/ranches on rolling hills, mostly inhabited by horses, although we did see some cattle.

Here are a few pictures of the school...

These pictures are deceiving -- it was cold today.  Actually it's been a lot colder on this trip than we guessed it would be, and we didn't pack quite enough warm clothes.  On this day, there was a solution, modeled by Alyssa...

We were really impressed by Patrick Henry's students and faculty.  The average class size, even for freshman, is generally no more than 25 kids.  And all classes are taught by the Professors themselves, not assistants.  The seniors all have internships in their field of study, most in Washington DC.

Most of all, we were just impressed by the mannerisms of the people.  Everyone we met was articulate, friendly, well-dressed, and polite.  We sat in on a U.S. History class; I was shocked by the depth of some of the questions the kids asked.  We ate lunch in the student cafeteria where we saw Michael Smith (director of HSLDA), Michael Farris (PHC Chancellor), and Graham Walker (PHC President) eating lunch next to the kids.  Amazing! 

Overall, it was a great day.  And the big grin on Tyler's face when we said good-bye created a bittersweet moment for his Mom.