Education

Ph.D. (University of Illinois); M.A. and B.A. (University of California). It is a remarkable coincidence that I am now living so close to my mother’s birthplace. (She was a descendant of early pioneers in southern Michigan.) My father, an Englishman, came to this area in 1926. The Englishman, after 20 years, had enough of Michigan winters, so I grew up in San Diego (residing there until high school graduation). Since high school, I have lived in 11 cities in seven different states. This includes Boise, Idaho, where, new Ph.D. in hand, I moved in 1976 to take a job with the State Department of Education. After four years of public employment, I entered the business world as a computer programmer. Soon I was the data processing manager for a grocery wholesaler, where I worked until 1984. For the next 21 years, except for two years as a professor here at Hillsdale, I was employed in the computer hardware and software industries (from 1984-1991 and 1991-2005, respectively). During these years, while moving up through the world of sales, marketing, product management and, later, software implementation and line management, I remained academically current. This made me rather an odd bloke among my business associates. Seldom has the adaptability and ingenuity engendered by a good liberal education been more required and put to better use!

The greatest part of my thinking and study takes place in the territory defined by the intersection of philosophy, politics and education. It is for this reason that writers such as Plato and Rousseau have figured so prominently in my work over the years. I often investigate the specific disciplines, but inevitably I return to the nexus of issues where all three of the fields have a vital role to play.

My department offers every course every term. This means that we teach the same courses during each semester. I often reflect on which of my two regular courses I most enjoy. Every time I think that one is the more rewarding, I change my mind. My Foundations of Education course (which is an excursion in philosophy of education) is increasingly attracting students who are not in the teacher education program. This is changing the character of the course as it responds to an ever wider span of interests, concerns and backgrounds. I also teach Honors seminars whenever possible. This has been a rewarding experience. I hope someday to teach courses beyond those I have taught up to now. These, ideally, would include existing courses in areas of my interest and expertise as well as new courses that would appeal to students from across the student body.

Any faculty member familiar with the condition of higher education in this country is compelled regularly to give thanks for being at this place at this time. While there is at the College considerable diversity of opinion among faculty and students (without, I am pleased to say, any trace of mindless endorsement of diversity per se), we enjoy a fundamental unity of purpose. To be at Hillsdale College is to be a participant in something important and distinctive. For many of us, being here is a blend of dream and destiny.

To begin with, become clear regarding what Hillsdale College stands for and represents. Once here, put your education at the center of your existence. Open yourself to the intellectual and moral possibilities—to the truths the College exists to illuminate. Give yourself to them. Yes, social life, work, athletics and volunteer activity have a place. But some things are more important than others. We live in a hierarchical universe where subordination is appropriate. (This is one of the central lessons of genuine higher education.) While at Hillsdale, focus on what you will have scarce time for later. Cultivate your mind; read books; learn to express yourself effectively and with precision; converse with those from whom you can learn.

With very rare exception, the students of this college are pleasant and decent persons who appreciate being here. They are willing to learn, which is to say that they understand that understanding often comes only through struggle. Most of them in addition grasp that knowing why something is worth learning often follows rather than precedes such learning. In short, to a remarkable degree the students at Hillsdale possess faith in our mission. As a consequence, both they and their teachers benefit greatly.

jfennell@hillsdale.edu