Teacher, Tall Oaks Classical School

I am the oldest of three children, and we grew up homeschooled in Ohio. My father had received Imprimis for years, and we assumed that if I were to go to college, I would go to Hillsdale. I was quite blessed that the door opened to the only school to which I applied! After graduation, I desired to serve, even if indirectly, the mission of Hillsdale, so I took a development position at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), a non-profit dedicated to fostering in America’s college youth knowledge of the “permanent things.” After two years at ISI, I returned to academia where I now teach high school history, civics, and economics at a classical Christian school in Delaware.

My very first class at Hillsdale was Western Heritage. Dr. Brad Birzer opened the class with a charge that in this class and in our lives we seek to know the True, the Good, the Beautiful, and the One. That moment forever changed how I would think about the world and human existence.

Seriously consider a liberal arts education, even if you don’t fully understand what it means. It’s so much more than merely acquiring a solid, well-rounded education. The liberal arts is the study of the whole body of knowledge (science, math, literature, history, philosophy, language) that allows one to see the connectedness of the disciplines and ultimately the giftedness of life. It’s about reading the great books, standing on the shoulders of the great thinkers, examining how to live the good life, and asking the fundamental questions of human existence: what is man and what is God.

Academics, first and foremost! I knew Hillsdale was a unique school in that the curriculum was classical, traditional, rigorous, and “core” in the sense that the “great books” would be read and re-read. I knew the professors were excellent, that the pursuit of the truth was taken seriously, and that specialization and irrational indoctrination would be eschewed.

No education is perfect or complete in this fallen world, but my Hillsdale experience laid an excellent foundation for the rest of my life. I certainly didn’t read all the great books, but I learned at Hillsdale which ones to spend the rest of my life reading. I certainly didn’t learn all I needed to know to live a good life, but I learned how to ask the very question (and the vitality of just asking it!). On the other hand, Hillsdale did not prepare me to face the fact that the “real world” just hasn’t contained quite the density of wonderful kindred-spirit friendships that I experienced in college. But this, obviously, is easily forgivable.

In retrospect, the four years I spent at Hillsdale glow warmly with a plethora of happy times. There was a certain fullness to my college experience, rich with many “little lights,” so it’s difficult to discern one overarching “highlight.” Though I never thought I would ever admit this, I probably miss most the studying: late nights working differential equations in empty classrooms; trying to find an empty table in the packed library during finals week; learning through conversation and community what constitutes the good life; synthesizing a semester’s worth of knowledge into a study guide (I still have all my study guides, by the way, and reference them often!).