Today, 40 classical schools from 22 states are seeking seniors who can be to the students in their schools what Hillsdale professors have been to Hillsdale graduates.
Seniors who become classical school teachers do not abandon the collegial community they were a part of at Hillsdale. While their roles and castmates do change, they continue to be a part of an association united by shared commitments to the transcendentals, to liberal learning, and to the western tradition.
Hillsdale’s liberal education aims beyond the utility of learning to the development of the whole individual. It is an education for virtue and the pursuit of the true and the good, grateful for the beautiful found in the world. The foundation of that education is the relationship students have not just with each other, but with their teachers. This holistic schooling must be modeled.
The classical school commitment to the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, to great texts and great ideas, educates the whole person in like manner. And like the professors at Hillsdale, classical school teachers wear the passion for these permanent things, for lessons well learned and living well, that they hope their students will put on.
Hillsdale students have experienced this same method of learning and teaching through their time in college that they will use teaching in classical schools. The relationship between Hillsdale student and professor is one of mentorship, a relationship wherein the student learns to love the loves of the teacher.
With the college’s rejection of federal funding and the independence of classical and private schools from the influence of the common core and other regulations, each has the freedom to pursue this philosophy of education.
The Hillsdale minor in classical education is a testament to the college’s commitment to this whole-person schooling. There is no education program separating the content of what is taught from the manner in which is taught or the character of the teacher.
As students turn in resumes today, they can take comfort in the fact that these schools, even thousands of miles away, are part of the same tradition as their alma mater. And they can be confident that in their relationships with their professors they have learned to teach and model a liberal education.