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One of the things we do at St. Michael School is encourage our students to encounter the wonders in nature -- for wonder is integral to classical pedagogy -- and nothing excites wonder like mathematics and astronomy!  (Just think of the digits of pi -- they never end!  Or think of the thrill of wonder excited by a shooting star!)  

Another thing we do is to show students that truth is something objective, and that we all have a responsibility to conform our minds and hearts to the truth. Error comes in many forms, and so it divides us into disconnected camps.  But there is only one truth, one creation, and when we conform our minds to the reality of this one creation, it brings us all together. Sometimes we uncover the same truth, as our students do in Geometry, and affirming those truths brings us into one mind and heart, one fellowship in the truth. Sometimes we uncover incomplete truths that seem to conflict with one another and evolve over the centuries, as in literature, but when we all put our different perspectives together so that they can modify and correct each other, we are able to see the truth more clearly, accurately, and completely. 

Is the Earth flat?  Some would say it is just a matter of one's perspective - for early man, yes, for us, no.  But a classically educated child knows that the truth is one -- the Earth is out there and we do not get to decide its shape, the Earth does.  Those who conform their minds to the objective reality are correct, and those who deny that objective reality are wrong.  That means we must examine the Earth and uncover the reality if we hope to be united in the truth.

At St. Michael School, we look for the greatest arguments accessible to the young mind and examine what reality they uncover.  Is the Earth spherical? Our teachers tell us it is, but this is human faith.  How can I know for myself the truth? Our own experience seems to say "no", but photographs from the Moon suggest otherwise. Were the photographs fake?  How can we know?  Aristotle knew the Earth was spherical without the reports and pictures of astronauts, but from his own observations and arguments.  Why did Aristotle think the Earth was round?  Can we re-observe the evidence that establishes the argument? Can our students use his arguments to see it for themselves?  

What does the shape of the Earth have to do with Pi Day 2025?  What does either of these have to do with eclipses?  Pi is a special number and our students will learn it is the ratio of a circle to a square, and how to use that definition to calculate this number (the older ones will show it is approximately 22/7 or 3.14).  So is that the connection: pi and spherical planets are all generated from circles?  But then what about eclipses?  How does that fit in?  Actually, the connection is simpler than that: weather permitting, our students can prove Aristotle was right, and that the Earth is round, by observing an eclipse on Pi Day, March 14!  Here is how:

At midnight, when Thursday, 3.13.2025 rolls into Friday, 3.14, Pi Day 2025, the near side of the Moon will become entirely illuminated, what we call a Full Moon.  But at that very moment, the Earth will also begin to move directly between the Moon and the Sun, blocking the Sun's light.  From the perspective of a man on the Moon, the edge of the Sun will dip behind the side of the Earth.  From the Earth, there will be no noticeable difference, but slowly over the next hour, the Moon will dim imperceptibly as the Earth covers more of the Sun.   Then, at 1:10am, the Eastern edge of the Moon will dip into the darkest part of the Earth's shadow.  Within 40 minutes, half the Moon will be in darkness.  Here on Earth, we will be able to see the shadow of the Earth clearly cutting across the middle of the Moon.  By 2:30am, the entire Moon will be engulfed in the Earth's shadow and this "totality" will last for one hour.  Then at 3:30am, the Western edge of the Moon will begin to brighten as the Moon slides out of the Earth's umbra.  By 4am, only half the Moon will be illuminated.  As the wee hours progress, the Moon will grow ever brighter until all is back to normal.

How does this prove the Earth is round?  Simple: At 1:50am, one can see several thousands of miles of the shadow of Siberia and the Northern Pacific Ocean cast across the face of the Moon, and it is definitely a round shadow.  Then at 4:05, one can see the shadow of several thousand miles of the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Africa cast across the face of the Moon, and again, one can clearly see that the Earth is round all along there as well.  Doesn't this prove the Earth is round? Yes, it does, Aristotle notes, but not that it is spherical, for flat disks also make round shadows.  Aristotle insists on being precise.  To prove the Earth is round all around, we must observe lunar eclipses at other times of night, when the sunlight hits the Earth from different angles.  

But this is what St. Michael High School students have been doing for the last few years.  The first one we observed was November 19th 2021, when the shadow of Australia and Chile were seen on the Moon.  The next one was on September 24, 2022 when the shadow of the North Pole was observed.  The next one was May 15 when the shadows of the Hawaiian Island chain and Sub-Saharan Africa were seen.  Then on November 8, 2022 we viewed the shadow of Indonesia and the Andes Mountains cast upon the Moon.  And this coming September, our students will again have the opportunity to watch other parts of the Earth projected onto the Moon.  Every shadow of our world we have ever seen, or will seen, is round.  

Since every time your child sees a lunar eclipse, it happens at different times of night, and so the Sun is shining at different angles, and yet the shadow is always round.  But as Aristotle notes, a spheroidal body is the only one that casts a round shadow from every direction. It follows then that Aristotle was correct, and all the flat Earth folks on the Internet must be wrong: for the truth is one and the Earth is evenly round in every place, and so it is a globe.

So on Pi Day, March 14, 2025, early on Friday morning at 1:50am and again at 4:00am, slide out of bed, look up into the sky with your child, and see the proof that our pretty planet is in fact a beautiful blue ball full of very intelligent seekers of truth, including YOU!  

Peter Orlowski has taken two different classical schools hundreds of miles to see the Solar Eclipse of August 2017 and April 2024. Peter is the Dean of Students at St. Michael School in Brattleboro, Vermont, where he has taught all kinds of students and subjects since 2020.

[PHOTOS TAKEN BY OUR STUDENTS DURING DIFFERENT ECLIPSES]