A Road Less Traveled: Dr. Carl Young’s Path to the Classics
Written by Adam Robbins
Hillsdale is full of many unique, interesting, and intelligent professors bent on researching and sharing their love of some discipline or subject that has captivated them. One such professor is Carl E. Young, an associate professor of classics, who has a history with ancient political thought.
Before college, my journey across the Latin language was long and arduous, and the news that I had to take an intermediate Latin class first semester at Hillsdale was not confidence-inspiring. Professor Young’s initial calm and straightforward attitude, however, helped to appease some of my freshman nerves, and his snow-white beard gave me the impression of an ancient Greek statesman. I wanted to endure Latin that semester, but I ended up enjoying it thanks to Professor Young. As the semester progressed, we learned interesting facts about him: he had gone to college, dropped out of college to follow the American rock band Grateful Dead on tour, joined the military, and returned to school once again with an ardent love of the classics. The little snippets we learned about his life as we bantered about Caesar and the energetic way he approached class made me wonder, “How did such an interesting person end up standing here teaching me Latin?”
Professor Young grew up in South Carolina; his father, brother, and grandfather were all part of the criminal justice system, but he had little interest in policing as a young man going into college. He attended the University of South Carolina—his local university—with no clear goal for the future.
Professor Young knew he was wasting his time in college and yearned for freedom and adventure. Something about following the Grateful Dead manifested these feelings, so he dropped out of college in his third semester to follow the band. In order to stay financially stable, Young began working at a record store so he could see as much of the tour as possible.Through the Grateful Dead, he found a whole new world outside of his own. The youthful spirit of adventure surged inside him, and his mother was distraught when she learned he had dropped out of college.
His father reacted level-headedly and responded to his actions by asking “what now?” The military was proposed, but the thought repulsed Professor Young. He enjoyed the music industry and became a bassist for a time, but his band had little drive and didn’t come to much. A thick disillusionment settled on him, and he realized that the world he lived in was shallow and insincere. Throughout the ups and downs, his father calmly tried to help him: on one occasion he assisted Professor Young in getting work as a carpenter for a few months. His spirit of adventure was roused once more and his desire for extremes led him back toward the military. The scales tipped and he left behind his world of freedom, light and insubstantial like a feather, for a weighty world of discipline and order, which he realized he needed.
The military offered a way for Professor Young to cultivate his character and intellect. While in the army, he went to a Barnes & Noble bookstore and asked for two books on war, but instead he received Homer’s The Iliad and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Personal non-religious books were not permitted in his unit, so he convinced his superior officers that The Iliad was his religious text and could not be prohibited: they accepted his argument and he began his journey through the gory slaughter and the deep griefs that ancient men honored. While reading, he befriended a classics major with whom he discussed the text. Together they discussed the Republic by Plato and other ancient texts. Professor Young was guided down the path of ancient thought and politics by their meaningful conversations, which helped develop his love of the classics.
When punished by his superiors to write on his group’s values, he used Aristotle’s Ethics to criticize them and confuse those who had punished him. Eventually, Young’s days of military service and confusing superiors with Aristotle came to an end. He got married and decided he wanted to be a classics professor, which would allow him to confuse college students with the Greeks he had grown to love. He and his wife both began working toward their master’s degrees, and Professor Young taught at schools along the way. He developed a love of teaching and his subject. Young was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Duke University and continued to teach as he worked on his doctorate, learning more, along the way, about a liberal arts college in Hillsdale, Michigan. He had heard of the College before then, as his father had long been a subscriber to Imprimis.
Young received a job offer at Hillsdale and realized the school was a gem, a rare place. Now he shares the love of the classics with his students.
I asked him what he enjoyed about teaching, and he told me it feels great sharing a love for classical antiquity. He enjoys being the one to introduce new students to the world of Greek thought and showing them a new adventure. With experienced students, he enjoys watching them grow and think and question as they mold their minds and make their own opinions about things that have been in conversation for thousands of years. He found in ancient politics a force of action that appeased his naturally active and practical soul to a degree that abstract philosophy could not.
At the end of the day, Professor Young enjoys guiding people to the truth and cultivating the minds of young people. As a father, he wants to give his sons a strength of character that will allow them to face anything and to grow into good men. To that end, he reads books to them from across the ages that show models of strength. He wants to create a ground of faith and morals in which they can sow themselves. As a teacher, he shows a quality that I strongly admire; he reads and grows alongside us each time he engages with texts. There is a partnership between student and teacher in which we both grow as we engage. He told me that it helps him to be a better scholar.
Sometimes we can forget the student behind the teacher or the person behind the profession. Dr. Young is one of those professors who inspires life into the studies of the ancients. He turns his classes into an adventure and somehow has fun with Latin at eight o’clock in the morning. I thoroughly enjoyed his class and learning about the man behind it.
Adam Robbins, ’27, hails from Atlanta, GA, and enjoys writing short stories and poetry, reading, and the English language. He plays classical guitar and specializes in Classical, flamenco, and Spanish music. His favorite author is Dostoevsky, and he enjoys studying literary and philosophical works from across the ages. He likes to spend his warm sunny days golfing with friends or going on walks.
Published in April 2024