Hillsdale College is under attack.
The media and public education bureaucrats are working together to create a false narrative about Hillsdale College. They would like the public to think the college teaches right-wing extremism, but the truth is far different.
Enemies of school choice and quality education have long seen Hillsdale as a threat and an easy target. The media has always expressed interest in the college, perhaps because it does not teach that boys can be girls or that America is irredeemably stained by an “original sin” of racism.
Many recent attacks began in July when Phil Williams, a reporter with Nashville News Channel 5, published footage of Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn at an event with Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who requested Hillsdale begin 50 charter schools in the state.
“Education is easy, you don’t have to know anything,” Arnn said in the deceptively-edited footage, which showed only small clips of his remarks. “The teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.”
News Channel 5, however, left out important context.
“My wife is English, and she is a gardener, big-time,” Arnn said at the event. “She doesn’t talk about what she is going to do to these plants. She talks about what they need. Because if you give them what they need, they will grow.”
Since the footage leaked, various Tennessee school boards have barred Hillsdale-affiliated charter schools from operating in their districts, denying families the opportunity to obtain a high-quality classical education.
On Sept. 29, Hillsdale withdrew three of its charter school applications, which were being considered by the state board of education. But Williams apparently misses the college, as he made an Oct. 3 radio appearance to continue discussing the “Hillsdale charter school controversy.”
The national media has long seen Hillsdale as an easy target, with outlets like Salon calling the school “far right” and The Daily Beast deriding Hillsdale’s “trash American citizenship course.” Even local media in places like South Dakota and Florida have set their sights on the college.
Media outlets nationwide have simply recycled information about Hillsdale over and over again. The content of these “groundbreaking” reports is already public knowledge.
Hillsdale has long placed itself in the public spotlight. It reaches more than 6 million subscribers with its publication Imprimis, offers free online classes, and hosts prominent conservative speakers such as Justice Amy Coney Barrett and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Hillsdale’s Washington, D.C. campus is a hub for conservatism in the capital. Not to mention, the college’s K-12 program offers classical education resources like the 1776 Curriculum to charter schools across the nation. Hillsdale is clear about its intent to restore America’s once-prominent Constitution, along with an honest, apolitical, and classical civics education.
The classes are far beyond what I ever expected as a student. Great books like “The Odyssey,” Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” and “The Aeneid” have taught me about virtues like courage, justice, and piety, along with human nature’s imperfections. The professors, always open to students, invest in my life and those of my friends. Most students have had similar experiences. Hillsdale is no factory of “far right” extremists, but a school that teaches students to pursue goodness in their own lives, and by extension, to pursue goodness for the nation.
Those in power, especially in the education bureaucracy, see limited government as a threat to their livelihoods. When Hillsdale teaches students that America is essentially good though imperfect, it’s pushing politics in the classroom. This common unifying idea throughout American history is suddenly taking it too far. But those who consider Hillsdale too political should reflect on what they’ve been pushing for more than a decade.
The same ones that accuse Hillsdale of pushing politics have been practicing critical race theory in the classroom – at first openly, and then covertly when parents began to find out. Today, they have incorporated radical gender ideology to promote “inclusiveness.” Make no mistake: teaching political, often-explicit material includes no one, but it does exclude parents from their children’s education.
Consider this curriculum guidance for New Jersey second graders: “Discuss the range of ways people express gender and how gender-role stereotypes may limit behavior.” Now, review the goal of Hillsdale’s 1776 Curriculum: “Knowledge and understanding of American history and of the American republic as governed by the Constitution and morally grounded in the Declaration of Independence.” Which one sounds like politics, and which one sounds like education?
The national controversy around Hillsdale is completely fabricated. The media continues to publish piece after piece, rehashing content that has always been in the open. One finds it difficult to see this for anything other than an effort to stoke panic over the college to further anti-parent and anti-school choice agendas. Hillsdale is no shadowy group working to subvert public education – it simply stands in the way of avarice and ambition.
Too many journalists, products of a broken education system, fail to see past their own subjective realities. When they see any nonconforming institution, it’s an anomaly, a spectacle of “extremism.” Many members of the education bureaucracy and the media target institutions that stand in their way. This has happened to Hillsdale.
Conserving the rich tradition of self-governance is not extreme. It is one of the most stable and sane things in today’s tumultuous world. Hillsdale will continue to offer classical education, “pursuing truth and defending liberty” even when it brings backlash.