Flintridge Prep headmaster turns from Great Books to great lives
What is the good life?
For Peter Bachmann, longtime educator and headmaster of Flintridge Preparatory School, this question lay at the cornerstone of his “Great Books” honors seminar, a course designed to help high school seniors become more conversant with significant writings and ideas of Western civilization.
Since 1986, Bachmann has asked students to answer that question as the subject of their final papers. Their responses, and the arcs of their lives that have followed long after graduation, inspired Bachmann’s most recent book, “Advancing Confidently.”
“I went back and read students’ final papers,” Bachmann said in a recent interview at the La Cañada private school. “At first, I wanted to look at people at 17 and then at 27, 37 or 47 to see how well they predicted themselves at that early age. But then I thought a more interesting use would be the stories (of the students) themselves.”
With a title borrowed from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” the book puts a spotlight on those the headmaster believes have demonstrated the courage to, as Thoreau put it, advance confidently in the direction of their dreams.
Its subjects are the educator’s own esteemed U.C. Berkeley professors — memories of whom were evoked during a 2013 reunion that forms the beginning of the book — and from Flintridge Prep’s own graduates, who went on to accomplish great things despite challenges and setbacks.
Bachmann said he’s become aware in recent years of what seems to be a growing anxiety among students and parents about an uncertain future.
“This is understood, but I’m not convinced it’s necessary,” he said. “If we become too anxious we make fear-based decisions, rather than aspirational decisions.”
The book, which leans on the importance of character and personal strengths such as resilience, fearlessness, reinvention and empowerment, is intended to assure readers there are many pathways to success.
On Sunday at 7 p.m., Bachmann brings that message to Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse, where he will appear for a discussion and book-signing. He hopes readers will draw inspiration from the people featured in the pages.
One of those people is Glendale resident and Prep alum Srinivas Sarma, a 1989 graduate who had aspirations of working in the medical field but was led down other paths of interest that distracted him.
“Advancing Confidently” shows Sarma’s diligence regaining lost ground, working his way to USC and then Harvard and eventually becoming director of Cardiovascular Surgical Intensive Care for Southern California Permanente Medical Group.
Now 44 with two children who attend Prep, Sarma said he learned as a student he had the internal resources to keep going and the optimism to believe that, even in times of trouble, there was always a pathway back to solid ground.
He recalled Bachmann’s Great Books class as a space that brought out the best in students and elevated their game. When he heard his former headmaster wanted to interview him for “Advancing Confidently,” he was surprised.
“I was flattered and scared. (But) he wrote it in a way that is so kind and accurate,” Sarma said of the finished product. “It reminds you there are so many wonderful ways to get to certain endpoints. Some of them are risky and require leaps of faith.”
Such is the case for 2004 alum Megan Kimble, who learned to marry her love of writing and desire to make meaningful change in the world. The author of “Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food,” Kimble called Bachmann’s Great Books class a transformative experience.
“So many of the themes and questions I’m pursuing in my writing career began as inquiries in that class, questions like, how do we as individuals enact meaningful change? Given all that we know about challenges people face on a global scale, how do we act in our day-to-day lives?” said Kimble, 29, now managing editor of Edible Baja Arizona, a Tucson food magazine.
Bachmann said he hopes his latest book will get people thinking about what the good life means to them.
“Optimism has its place, and I think it usually pays off for those who have the courage of their convictions, work hard, are resilient and willing to follow their passions,” he said. “We are going to be OK.”
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
