The Common Reading Program has formed a core part of the new student experience at the CHC in recent years. Started in 2009 by CHC student Alex Goodell (Class of 2011), it introduces new students to the practice of debate in a public space: presenting and defending their position in front of others, and listening to, challenging, and synthesizing opinions of others, essential for the discussion-style classes.

Past Common Reading Books are: Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains (2009, 2010), Sister Helen Prejean’s Death of Innocents (2011), Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (2012), Michele Norris’s The Grace of Silence (2013), and Dr. Richard Davidson’s The Emotional Life of Your Brain (2014).

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