If you think that some of the freshmen in your classes look like high school students, you might be right. Local high schoolers are taking advantage of the campus to widen their courses of study and to earn some college credits.

According to Ian Olsen at UAF's Institutional Research department, there are 350 students currently enrolled at UAF's several campuses who are aged 14 to 17. Of these 350, 60 are degree seeking.

Chris Harper, a junior at West Valley, is enrolled in several music classes and a math class. He said that he had been taking music instruction at UAF for several years and that it was a natural move to start taking courses for credit. "The homework load and stuff feels about the same," Harper said. "I will probably take some more classes next semester."

Harper sees UAF as a strong possibility for when he graduates from high school, probably seeking a degree in music or math, but he'd also like to spend a year or two studying in France.

Daniel Tanner, a West Valley senior, is taking English 111 and a desktop publishing course. His parents and teachers are happy that he's doing it, he said, but it isn't a big deal. "They like it, but it wasn't expected or anything," he said. "Which is probably a good thing."

Tanner is planning to take a year off and then maybe come back for a computer science degree.

Another UAF-high school connection is the philosophy class at Lathrop taught by professor Walter Benesch and Lathrop teacher Paul Harmon, who studied under Benesch while earning a degree at UAF.

"I use a lot of philosophy in my American Lit class, and the kids started asking about it, and the planets just came together," said Harmon.

The class is a primer in the use of logic and philosophy, not just its history, and follows some lines of inquiry that are at the same time more abstract and more concrete than what students might run into in most of their studies. Benesch encourages the students to ask the questions "What?," "Why?," and "How do you know?" of any information they are presented with.

At one point two students fell into a conversation that drew the attention of the teachers. "Sorry, we were talking about reality," one of the students said.

A student at a neighboring desk laughed, "Try using that in any other class," he said.

Students who take this class have an option to earn three credits from the university, but the credits require an extra workload. Benesch said that this class is the only arrangement of this kind that he's aware of.

One student who is taking the course for credit is Chris Dunkle, who's also the TA in the class. Dunkle is a junior at Lathrop, but he has already taken some math courses at UAF. "I like this class," he said. "The philosophy seems kind of fuzzy to me, but I really like the logic."

Last week the class investigated the difference between causal and categorical statements in syllogisms.

To keep the class's attention Benesch relies on his famous humor. "If you're serious for very long you lose them," he said.

Benesch also lectures in West Valley art classes about Chinese and Indian theories of art. "Many years I've had high school students come and take the Intro to Oriental Philosophy (PHIL F202), and those have been some of my best students," he said. "There are none enrolled this year, but the class is always open for anyone who wants to come and listen."

Benesch said that he's not concerned that college level work is too difficult for younger students, and that in fact it can be especially beneficial for younger students because the cerebral cortex of the brain is developed to it's permanent state in the years from puberty until about age 25. "It's an age of neuronal explosion," he said. "And the paths that are created are the paths that we use for the rest of our lives."