Hillsdale College: Pointing the Way Out of Bondage

The sacrifices that are demanded of Americans today may be necessary, but they must never become customary. The purpose of our government is to keep us alive, yes, but also to keep us living and working, as is our right.

Going forward, our best leaders will eschew political gamesmanship and work to control our borders, fix our public health agencies, and end our dependence on China and other foreign countries for goods that are essential to our national health and security. We must prepare ourselves to face the next pandemic without surrendering our way of life.

—Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn—

Hillsdale College posted this excellent video on You Tube on May 15, 2020. In it, Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn announces that the school will resume in-person classes this fall, with students returning to campus on August 23.

The video, however, is far more than an announcement of plans to resume on-campus instruction. In three-and-a-half-minutes, Dr. Arnn upholds numerous key ideas that Americans have forgotten and desperately need to rediscover. Let’s highlight some of them.

Dignity

Dr. Arnn affirms the dignity of every individual at Hillsdale—including students, faculty, and members of the administration. He does so when he says, “It hadn’t occurred to us that we wouldn’t have college—but now it has, because people ask us.” He continues, affirming that “this is what we do.” We have a worthwhile task to fulfill, he essentially says, and we are going to go about fulfilling it. “We are humans.…And so we are supposed to be about our work.” It is clear that this is not drudgery to Dr. Arnn and the other members of the Hillsdale family, but immeasurably purposeful and fulfilling. Also, “this thing we do is beautiful,” says the president of Hillsdale. We can’t just sit at home with so many important and worthwhile things to accomplish! Not unless being isolated is absolutely essential!

Responsibility

We can’t stop working indefinitely! We have jobs to do! As human beings, “we have to work! We’ll starve if we don’t!” Regarding the economy, Dr. Arnn says, “I am astonished that there’s this abstraction called the economy, and the thought is we can turn it off and turn it on at will. Because that’s not how it works!” No, that’s not how it works. And here’s the other side of the coin: People can’t be turned off and on “at will” either! As Dr. Arnn puts it, “We have to live! We are beings in motion with a contemplative side.” Hillsdale College understands that being human means engaging in fulfilling work.

The value of learning, including developing an appreciation for that which is beautiful and good

“[T]his thing we do is beautiful.” Teaching and learning are necessary and invigorating. Moreover, they are good things. “[B]y our work we shape our characters and inform our intellects.” The educational process isn’t just useful; it also cultivates appreciation for valuable and pleasing things. It’s apparent that at Hillsdale College, education is seen as a quest for truth that isn’t primarily drudgery, but enjoyable and fulfilling overall. That’s not to say that being a student at Hillsdale isn’t challenging; I’m sure it is! At times tests and assignments must be very tough. Yet frequently the hardest things in life turn out to be the most satisfying.

A willingness to face reality and cooperate with it

Sadly, at many institutions of higher learning in America today, students are taught they can make up their own truth. This is a waste of time, resources, and energy; but I suppose in the short-term it makes students feel good. The long-term effects, though, are devastating. Why? Reality is unyielding. It does not negotiate. It does not compromise. Dr. Arnn understands this. He says,

[T]his thing we do is beautiful. That word beautiful is a big word. It is in certain classic works the perfection of the word good. And the good is the being of anything, what it is. You’re going to find out what you are. You’re going to approach the study of that and every fundamental thing as if there is a reality. And that’s a very strange thing to do because what colleges teach today is things are just whatever you make of them: You should recreate yourself. Be your own god. Well, we don’t think that we’re actually going to get to do that, because here we, these bipeds with a rational soul — what is that? How does that work? And to learn that.

Kudos to Dr. Arnn and to his team at Hillsdale! This is education at its finest!

An appreciation for personal interaction

It’s obvious that at the folks at Hillsdale College believe that an in-person classroom learning experience enhances the educational process, making it more valuable and helping it to settle more deeply into students’ minds and experiences. Personal, face-to-face interactions—not only between professors and students but also between the students themselves—have no viable substitutes. Keep in mind that this is the perspective of a school that knows how to teach online.

Imprimis is Hillsdale’s complimentary “monthly speech digest…dedicated to educating citizens and promoting civil and religious liberty by covering cultural, economic, political, and educational issues.” It has over five million subscribers. In a recent Imprimis article titled “Thoughts on the Current Crisis,” Dr. Arnn writes,

[During the pandemic t]here have been many inspiring examples of service, good humor, and effort. I just finished a videoconference with the senior class officers to plan Commencement, which will be a grand celebration whether it is in May or later this summer. The seniors will arrive days early, dress up in their finery, and come over in groups for dinner at my house and sing and give toasts. Those are important rituals of friendship, and students have the same attitude as I: they will put up with absence and isolation, but resent it, and they will redouble their efforts to achieve the best things. They are determined to convert this disruption into an opportunity for excellence.

Meanwhile we are teaching our students online. We have learned a lot from producing online courses for the public over the past decade, and over two million citizens have taken one or more of them. Soon we plan to start a master’s degree program in classical education, and we will have an online component to that as well. But we lose something beautiful and irreplaceable when we are not in a classroom, and we regret very much these days having our students at a distance. There is a real loss in their absence, just as there is real loss everywhere in the nation. This loss is little measured or understood.

We lose something beautiful and irreplaceable when we are not in a classroom, and we regret very much these days having our students at a distance. There is a real loss in their absence, just as there is real loss everywhere in the nation. This loss is little measured or understood.
—Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn—

In this day of social media, the deepest and most meaningful relationships still are forged through personal interaction. Human beings are social creatures.

Tenacity and resolve

Dr. Arnn isn’t defiant, but he is determined. We might call it assertiveness in the best sense of the word. It’s quite refreshing. We need more of this today. Dr. Arnn says,

This is what we do! We’ve been doing it for 175 years.* We are going to keep doing it. And of course, in the 175 years there have been many obstacles — the Civil War. Right over there is our War Memorial Statue from that war; and we had a big part in that war, and all the big wars, and the Great Depression. And we weathered those, and we’ll weather this. In fact, we’re going to weather this easier than those.…

Optimism

Let me quote Dr. Larry Arnn one more time. This time I’ll give you the complete quote, in context. Do not misunderstand. I didn’t mislead you earlier. Nevertheless, you need to hear the concluding sentences of Dr. Arnn’s announcement. they’re in italics below.

Of course we’re going to get back together and do that [have in-person classroom learning]. And if by some wicked chance the law doesn’t let us do it, then we won’t. I don’t think that’s going to happen. But if that does happen, we’re going to find a way to turn that to good. Just like we found a way this time.

So look around here. Right? I look forward to seeing you on August 23^rd.

You have to be impressed. And inspired.

I am. Aren’t you?

*Hillsdale College was founded in 1844.

top image credit: Delp Hall and the Liberty Walk, facing Central Hall

Share this article on Facebook or Twitter.