Hillsdale College Professor Mark Kalthoff Delivers Freshman Foundation Lecture
Hillsdale, Mich. — Hillsdale College Dean of Faculty Mark Kalthoff presented a lecture on the first of Hillsdale College’s four pillars: learning. The lecture, which took place on October 12, is part of the Freshman Foundation Lecture Series.
Kalthoff explained that a liberal education aims to cultivate the heart and mind to pursue knowledge for its own sake instead of a vocation. He shared the significance of Hillsdale’s curriculum and how it differs from so many other American universities in that respect.
“Liberal learning produces cultivated, civilized men and women. It produces thoughtful people who have at their disposal a wealth of general knowledge and who, in light of this knowledge, can judge matters of significance in a distinguished matter,” said Kalthoff. “Liberal education likewise produces people capable of continuing to educate themselves; people endowed with the necessary intellectual framework, curiosity and methods to pursue a life of learning, and of course then vocational success.”
Kalthoff encouraged freshmen to think of learning based on what it originally meant. Through this, Kalthoff suggested, students could take the most advantage of their education.
“Learning at this place should be conditioned by remembering that the word for school means leisure. Free yourself to enjoy learning for its own sake, not for the sake of what learning will do for you or for what grade you think you need to get,” said Kalthoff. “For it is when learning is pursued for its own sake and only then will that learning do its most for you.”
Freshman Foundation is an introduction to the academic life and what it means to be a student at Hillsdale College. It is required for all incoming students as part of orientation programming. The series addresses the four pillars of Hillsdale College in student life and will include three more lectures by Hillsdale College faculty deans. The series takes place over the course of the academic year:
• Matthew Young, dean of natural sciences, associate professor of chemistry, “Faith”
• Steven Smith, dean of humanities, professor of English, “Character”
• Paul Moreno, dean of social sciences, professor and William and Berniece Grewcock Chair in Constitutional History, “Freedom”
All lectures take place in the College’s Searle Center and include a complimentary lunch for all freshman students.
For photos from the lecture, click here.