The Round Table
a Baylor Institution Turns 65
by Rachel Schulson
It is not what we learn in conversation that
enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift
contact with tingling currents of thought.
From the time it was
formed in 1942, membership in Baylor’s literary
group, the Round Table,
was coveted by Upper
School students. English
~ Agnes Repplier, American essayist
instructor James Hitt in
It Never Rains After
Three O’Clock, his history of the school through 1968, tells the
story of a student who threatened to form a club called Square
Chairs when he was apparently overlooked for membership. The
plan fizzled when he received his invitation to join the prestigious
club organized by former faculty member James Pennington at
the behest of then headmaster Dr. Herbert Barks, Sr.
Retired English and history instructor Bill Cushman ’59
served as the Round Table adviser from 1966 to 1998 with
a one-year break from 1968-69. “Herbert Barks wanted a
gathering in which the boys could talk on equal footing with
adults about important subjects,” says Cushman. “He wanted
students to understand the power and importance of good
conversation and realized that perceptive boys would appreciate
being asked to do something that they weren’t going to get a
grade for. Barks said then that the organization would rise
and fall on the willingness of the student to prepare in advance
and come in with something to say.”
Cushman notes that students embraced the opportunity to
participate in what Robert Maynard Hutchins calls “the Great
Conversation” in Great Books of the Western World, in which
he argues that conversation is the greatest contribution of the
West. “They might as well have been talking about Round
Table,” says Cushman.
The Club’s Early Years
According to Cushman, Pennington’s desire to introduce
students to conversation came from the role of books in his
own transformation. Baylor math instructor George L. “Judge”
Bradford, an intellectual giant, took an interest in Pennington
when Pennington joined
the Baylor faculty. “One
has to assume that Judge
Bradford detected intellectual promise in
Pennington, who was a
rough guy and more
than anything else an
athlete. Judge Bradford started bringing him books —Greek
tragedies and Shakespeare — and Pennington’s life changed.
He was, in his 30s, born again.” In 1942 Pennington, along
with Dr. Barks and Hitt, started the Round Table.
In his book Hitt describes the first meeting, on November
17, 1942, at which Barks presided. The members, a mix of
seniors, juniors, and sophomores, approved the constitution
and adopted their motto, a quotation usually attributed to
Voltaire and still the club’s motto: “I heartily disagree with
what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”
In its first two years, Round Table members struggled to
find a workable structure. Early topics were too broad to
tackle. Religion was the first subject discussed, with equally
difficult topics at subsequent meetings: world peace, world
literature, and a debate of the question, “Is the World Getting
Better?” The group invited special guests, including community
and faculty members, to join in the discussion.
“After two or three years, it dawned on Pennington it would
work better if everyone read one thing and talked about it,”
says Cushman. “What he ended up with was a formula for
every year: a Greek tragedy, Shakespeare, a work that prompted
a discussion of religion, and then novels for the remaining two,
informally an American novel and a non-American novel.”
The Round Table found its footing with this formula, but
it was Pennington’s almost obsessive dedication that wove the
club permanently into the Baylor fabric. “It was so personal
for him, and he functioned as a benevolent dictator. He picked
all the topics, invited the guests, and picked all the dates, but
he was so wonderful that nobody cared. Pennington and Hitt
would play off each other at the meetings. They were both
to moderate each discussion.” Some years students choose to
unforgettable and smart.”
first select a title and then find a moderator and, in other
In 1942 Baylor had only 19 faculty members and fewer than
years, students prefer to identify a teacher they want to involve
300 students. Round Table could accommodate nearly any
and ask what he or she is reading. According to Cushman,
Upper School student who
the group is easing into a new
wanted to be involved. During
of having student
In becoming a member of the Round Table, I do here- tradition
Pennington’s 24 years as the
officers — the president, vice
club’s adviser, the school’s enby pledge, that I shall at all times conduct myself, in a president, and secretary, who
rollment grew, and Round Table
elected at the group’s first
manner worthy of the honor bestowed upon me. It are
had to limit its membership.
meeting — lead the last disBy the mid-1970s, the
shall be my duty, to attend meetings regularly, and to cussion of the year.
school had more than 500
Often the books chosen are
prepare myself and to participate, in the activities of not those students would
students, and a faculty of 50,
many of whom were dedicated
this organization, in a way that will do credit to my- necessarily opt to read on their
readers. “A select and small
own, particularly in the first
self, to the Round Table, and to the Baylor School. semester when seniors are
group of faculty members
identified talented readers who
preparing college applications.
were lovers and discussers of literature,” explains Cushman.
“Round Table members are choosing to take on a significant
“They would choose five students and then those five would
amount of extra work,” says Ott, who always enjoys seeing
vote for an additional six or seven. I worried that it was too
what texts are selected now that students are more involved.
exclusive, but if you are going to base everything upon conversation, you just can’t have more than 20 people, including
adults. I anguished over it.”
In addition to its 12 to 16 student members, the current Round
Table includes Baylor’s President and Headmaster Dr. Bill
Stacy, who is also the club’s official faculty sponsor; the faculty
Heather Ott, who has served as Round Table adviser for the
adviser, Heather Ott; the chief academic officer of Baylor, Jim
past four years, cites this system as having contributed to the
Stover; Bill Cushman (emeritus); and two teachers selected
perception of Round Table as a secret club. She observes that
each spring by current Round Table members. This year’s
for a long time, those in the Baylor community knew little
teachers are Milly Rawlings and David Harris; they were
about the organization or how its members were selected. “It
preceded by Amy Cohen and Chris Watkins.
felt like it was too elitist, even for those who were in it.”
“Part of the prestige of Round Table comes from how the
Former faculty member O.J. Morgan, the Round Table
great teachers and headmaster have always been so committed
adviser who preceded Ott; English instructor and Associate
to it,” says Ott. “I was speaking recently with William MontHead for Academic Affairs, Jim Stover; Bill Cushman; and
gomery ’92, who now teaches English at GPS, and he talked
Round Table members decided in 2004 to re-evaluate the
about how important being a part of Round Table was for him.
selection of student members.
He remembered feeling so grown up sitting down with faculty
“The students we talked with that year wanted Round
and other folks and being listened to and treated as a peer.”
Table to be more transparent. They felt like peers who could
Dozens of former Round Table members echoed
contribute were overlooked,” says Ott. Round Table members
Montgomery’s sentiments when they responded to a letter
recommended that students take the initiative and worked
Cushman sent on November 17, 1992, the club’s 50th anniversary.
with her to institute an application process.
“Those discussions around the table constitute the beginnings
Now each spring Ott visits classes of juniors to talk about the
of my real education,” wrote the late J. Wesley Watkins ’53.
Round Table and encourage students to apply. “Applicants are
Fifteen years later Round Table’s current vice president,
selected based on their teachers’ assessment of their passion for
Radhika Patel ’08, shares Watkins’s recognition of the club’s
literature as manifested in how well they read,” says Ott. “How
value. “Round Table has given me a more profound apprecieffective the student is at discussing — and listening — is huge.
ation for literature. You read and talk about books in English,
Round Table is not for the student who absorbs but doesn’t add
but it’s a directed conversation. In Round Table you get to
something. Students must commit to being prepared to engage
direct what you’ll talk about, and you find yourself saying, ‘I
in the selection and study of texts that the group chooses.”
never thought about it that way.’ And you start seeing things
Student involvement in text selection is a more recent part
differently in the books you read in school or out of school.”
of the Round Table’s history. For the first 24 years that
Patel, who was initiated into the Round Table in October,
responsibility fell to the adult members of the club; in the early
also has great respect for the club’s traditions. “Even the word
1990s, the students and adults together selected the readings.
initiation makes it important. When we took the pledge —
“Now it’s their deal,” says Ott. “The adviser chooses the first
another scary word — we knew we were joining one of Baylor’s
one, and it’s become a new tradition to open with Shakespeare
oldest and most prestigious clubs. Unlike the honor pledge or
— it was King Lear this year — and then we ask the students
alma mater, only a few students each year get to say this pledge
to decide on the other four texts and whom they will invite
at Baylor.” (In becoming a member of the Round Table, I do
Great Conversation, Great Traditions
Out of the Shadows
hereby pledge, that I shall at all times conduct myself, in a
manner worthy of the honor bestowed upon me. It shall be
my duty, to attend meetings regularly, and to prepare myself
and to participate, in the activities of this organization, in a
way that will do credit to myself, to the Round Table, and to
the Baylor School.)
Upon their initiation, members add their signatures to a
register filled with the names of the 900 members who have
taken the same pledge. “You look back and see the signatures
of everyone who has ever been in Round Table,” says Patel.
“Your name is in a group with all these people. There are
some you’d heard of, and you’re in a league with them now.”
For many years, Round Table ended the year with a formal
banquet for members and their dates. Although that tradition
has not continued, members still follow others, such as dressing
up to attend meetings in the school’s elegant board room.
“We decided to retain the old way,” says Ott. “Meeting in a
relatively formal place and being dressed up, we step into a
different space emotionally and intellectually, and I think it
succeeds in helping to create that space of ‘here we are sitting
in a place together as equals.’”
“A Pennington tradition we faithfully adhere to is that we
let the author have the last word. The moderator finds an apt
quotation to end with,” says Cushman, who is delighted with
the changes Ott has implemented. “They’ve worked wonderfully
well. Heather is great; she makes me happy for Mr. Pennington.”
Ott credits the student members of the Round Table for the
club’s having thrived all these years. She still gets very excited
when she hears the students sharing their interpretations of the
texts. “It’s a distilled version of a great English class, with
everyone participating. It’s a class on fire. Round Table students
seek challenges; they seek to go the extra mile, embrace opportunity, and that’s why it works. Stover, Cushman, and I sit
around after meetings and say, ‘These kids are amazing!’”
Great Conversation, Great Traditions
In its 65-year history, Round Table readings have ranged
from articles in preparation for issue-oriented discussion
to poetry, plays, and novels to works of non-fiction.
Including the readings already discussed by 2007-08
Round Table members, there are 336 entries on the list
of readings since 1942. Shakespeare’s King Lear is the
text most frequently listed, having been selected nine
times since the club was formed; Joseph Conrad’s Heart
of Darkness is a seven-time selection.
The following is a list of Round Table readings from
the last three years.
2005-06
Colors and Blood by Robert Bonner ’85
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Angels in America by Tony Kushner
Provinces of Night by William Gay
2006-07
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Saturday by Ian McEwan
Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
2007-08 {in progress}
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
For a complete listing, compiled by Bill Cushman, please
go to www.baylorschool.org.
The Conversation Continues
This year’s Round Table members are: (front row) Skye Anfield,
Radhika Patel, vice president; Elyse Higley, Chelsea Dommert,
Anton Fleissner, (back row) Michael Schulson, president; Kahn
Koo, Hannah Jones, Ben Yang, Angela Kim, Rishi Dixit, Val
Hansen, secretary; Ali Hall, Margaret Matlock, Bryn Pitt, and
Ethan Wolfe. The faculty adviser is Heather Ott.
Pictured above are several current Round Table members and
past members who attended this year’s Round Table Reunion.
(front row) Skye Anfield, Michael Schulson, Buddy Fisher ’46,
Angela Kim, Rishi Dixit, Anna Paden ’02, (second row) Roy
Fuller ’79, Will Callaway ’82, Ward Fleissner ’75, Nicki Hendrix
’94, Carter Paden ’71, (third row) Bill Cushman ’59, Van Bunch
’75, Carter Lynch ’70, Peter Rawlings ’71, (back row) Steve
Smalling ’78, Doug Stein ’75, Barry Heywood ’52, Christopher
Cushman ’86, and Herb Barks ’51.