by Dr. Larry Arnn

Much has been made lately about the quality of higher education in the United States, specifically its ability to prepare students for the work force. At Hillsdale College, we share this concern as we are keenly aware of the challenges life poses for each of us. We reject, however, the educational premise that sees this concern solely as the product of an outcome-based view of education, which holds employment as the end and education as merely the means to that end. Though well-intentioned, we believe this to be, at best, an incomplete understanding of the aims of education.

At Hillsdale College, we hold to the traditional view that education is an end unto itself. We believe that the purpose of college is to train one for the full demands of life. These begin with work and the job of making a living, but they ascend very quickly to the questions of right and wrong that come up in every human task from accomplishing a job to advising a child.

We have held this belief since our founding some 164 years ago. Our Articles of Association point to this. In them, we are charged “to furnish all persons… a literary, scientific or theological education… and to combine with this, such moral, social and artistic instruction and culture as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of the students.” A developed mind and an improved heart are good no matter one’s employment. As a liberal arts college, we hold fast to this view.

The modern university holds a different view, evident in their course catalogs where it seems there is a college major for every occupation. These universities champion the idea that a successful career can only be realized through highly specialized training. This accounts for the proliferation of bachelor’s degrees in such subjects as culinary arts and automotive dealership management. While good chefs and honest car dealers perform great service and are certainly needed, it is the fact that they are good and honest that makes their service useful.

Cardinal John Henry Newman, in his book The Idea of the University, emphasized this point, and made the connection between that which is good and that which is useful. In Newman’s mind, one necessarily follows the other. It was his proposition that “useful is not always good, but good is always useful.” Newman went on to say “that a cultivated intellect, because it is a good in itself, brings with it a power and a grace to every work and occupation which it undertakes, and enables us to be more useful, and to a greater number.”

At Hillsdale College, it is our aim so to cultivate the minds of those students entrusted to our care. We believe this to be the best way to ensure that they will succeed in their chosen field. While we are justifiably proud of the tremendous achievements of Hillsdale College graduates in all walks of life, we are prouder still that their successes are grounded in those permanent truths that define our humanity. The study of the liberal arts has served our graduates well for 164 years. It will serve your sons and daughters well for many years to come.