Hillsdale College Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence Hosts Seminar
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College’s Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence held a seminar on “The Art of Teaching: Children’s Literature” in Ypsilanti, Michigan, from Sept. 28-29. The event included presentations on teaching through the Socratic method, the formative power of children’s literature, and how to teach poetry.
“The foundation of an excellent education for a child is the quality of the teachers. The mark of a great teacher is a lifelong desire to learn and improve,” said Hillsdale College Assistant Provost for K-12 Education Kathleen O’Toole. “Through the Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence we give teachers across a refreshing break, an inspiring series of talks on teaching and curriculum, and free resources to help them improve in their work.”
Speakers included Julie Apel, assistant headmaster at Hillsdale Academy, Benjamin Beier, associate professor of education at Hillsdale College, Daniel Coupland, dean of the Diana Davis Spencer Graduate School of Classical Education, Jonathan Gregg, assistant professor of education at Hillsdale College, Benedict Whalen, associate professor of English at Hillsdale College, and David Whalen, associate vice president for curriculum at Hillsdale College. The seminar concluded with remarks from Coupland on “Tried and True Pedagogy.”
“We have an obligation to teach students to think carefully, to think critically, to think logically, but that’s not enough. But in practice, it’s the imagination much more than reason that calls the shots,” Coupland said when discussing the importance of the imagination with the help of William Kilpatrick’s book, “Books that Build Character.” “Too often our reason obediently submits to what our imagination has already decided. Imagination plays a critical role in the moral decisions that children make that adults make as well.”
The Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence builds upon the mission of Hillsdale College’s K-12 Education Office and offers professional development seminars to a nationwide audience of public and private school teachers. More than 3,600 public, private, and homeschool teachers from 42 states have participated in more than 70 Hoogland Center seminars on topics like “The Declaration of Independence,” “The Constitution of the United States,” “George Washington and the American Founding,” “The First Amendment,” “Religious Liberty,” and the “Economics and the American Founding.”
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