Professors’ favorite classes

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Professors’ favorite classes

The professors make Hillsdale College great. Professors can give students a fresh perspective on what classes they can take and the uniquely interesting aspects of each class. Professors Mack, Whalen, and Tacke all love their fields of interest and long to see students experience that same joy.

Todd Mack (Courtesy)

Todd Mack – Assistant Professor of Spanish

What is your favorite class to teach and why?That’s a really hard question to answer. I love teaching the language classes because I think it’s amazing to see someone learn how to speak a language. There’s something super gratifying in giving someone that ability.

Teaching literature is probably my favorite thing to do. I love teaching the students about Spain and Spanish literature, and about themselves and the way they see the world. Spanish 493 is a pretty fun class. Spanish 493 is built like a seminar, and this semester I’m teaching the class on the Contemporary Novel of Spain. We all just come to class and talk about great, big ideas.

What do you love most about teaching at Hillsdale?
The students are just great here. I love teaching students that really want to learn. But another thing that I really love about teaching at Hillsdale is that I love the mission of Hillsdale College. I love this idea of searching for beauty, truth, and goodness. It is amazing that here at Hillsdale, we believe those things exist, and that we are capable as humans of identifying those things and attaining them. We get into these philosophical and ethical debates in Spanish 493, and ask what is true, good, and beautiful in the literature that we read. I can’t imagine being anywhere else than at Hillsdale College because you don’t get that kind of freedom in other places.

Benedict Whalen (Courtesy)

Benedict Whalen – Assistant Professor of English

What is your favorite class to teach and why?
I would have to say that any class which I am teaching during the moment is my favorite class. I genuinely love all of the books that my classes study, and I love the discussion of these books that happens in the classroom. But if I were forced to choose, I would say English 320, which studies Renaissance British Literature from 1500 to about 1660. Thomas Moore, Shakespeare, and Milton – such great works.

What do you love most about teaching at Hillsdale?
It would have to be the conversations that happen in the classroom. I enjoy preparing for class. Grading can be a bit of a chore, but I really love being in the classroom and diving into the text with students.

Daniel Tacke (Courtesy)

Daniel Tacke – Associate Professor of Music

What is your favorite class to teach and why?
I teach a lot of different things, and I’m pulled in a lot of different directions. If I had to pick, the advanced theory courses are a lot of fun– Theory III and advanced topics beyond Theory III. You know, when you get to the point where you’ve put in the time and gone over the rudimentary things and can actually get to a point where you use that on an individual level to understand music and how it’s working. The advanced theory courses teach the individual ownership of those ideas as tools for getting to the bottom of music and how it works. There’s much more of a dialogue going on about what we are doing and less transfer of information. And that’s a lot of fun.

What do you love most about teaching at Hillsdale?
All the things I was just describing, and the fact that I get to do that. I’ve taught at a variety of places, including conservatories, and institutions pretending to be conservatories, and teaching at those places is much more like checking off a box – you’ve done this class, and this class, now you can go practice your instrument. Around here, people study music because they’re fascinated by it and want to know more about it. That’s a very different kind of experience as a teacher, and it’s quite wonderful.