A glimpse inside Hillsdale College's network of classical schools across the country.
The following is an adaptation of remarks delivered to students at an all-school assembly.
Once a month we assemble here, and for a few minutes we get to see what our whole community looks like together: from our Kindergarteners up here in the front all the way to our seniors somewhere there in the back, along with our whole faculty and staff.…
Most of us have at one time or another had a teacher who knew his subject well, but who was generally unable to communicate it to students. The existence of this sort of person reveals a basic truth: that teachers, though they must possess knowledge, are not primarily defined by that knowledge.…
We fought to preserve what our forefathers had died for. We picked up our guns to protect our faith, to preserve our liberty. … It was to save our way of life, for our parents and siblings at home, for our children, the children we hoped to have, and for their children.
-Walter Ehlers
Adapted from remarks given at an all-school assembly
We have assembled here today to honor all American veterans: those who have gone before us, those who, we are proud to say, stand here with us, and all who have served in the armed forces for the defense of our great country and our common way of life.…
Every educational model flows from some idea of what it means to be human. Even if such a philosophical worldview is never made explicit or even consciously considered, it is still at work in all practical education, since educators can only profess to improve their students if they have some sense of what those students are meant to be. For at least the last century in the West, there has been no clear consensus on the goal of education or on the meaning of human nature, though in practice the tendency has been to measure human value in terms of socio-economic utility.…
“The beginning is thought to be more than half of the whole.”
– Aristotle
We often advertise classical education as an education for the whole human person. We are not training people for careers, we say, but minds for Wisdom; we aim not to improve skill sets so much as we aim to improve the human heart. Such statements can inspire and energize us during the first days of teacher in-service, but they become daunting ‒ even overwhelming ‒ for the teacher walking into a classroom for the first time.…