Conservative Conversation and Community
Last month, Ray and I attended a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in California. As is usual for these events, one of the speakers was Dr. Larry Arnn, the President of the College. More
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Starting in May, he will be the new President of the Board of Trustees of Hillsdale College.
We are in California at a Hillsdale National Leadership Seminar, and the announcement was made last night, to rousing applause.
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Trust me: if you love to shoot pistols, trap, skeet, archery, 3-D archery, and sporting clays, you must check out Hillsdale College! I’ve been here for just under a week, and I have grown in so many ways. It’s so satisfying to visit a college that is so deeply committed to the Constitution and is preparing our young people for the future; to be with people who share my values and where I’m supported in practicing Judaism; and where I have excellent instructors who have improved my shooting skills dramatically.
As I wrote in an earlier post, we scheduled attending this workshop, not realizing that Yom Kippur fell right in the middle of the week. I asked the Hillsdale representative if there was anyone who would be holding Yom Kippur services—at a Christian college, right!—and they found a group that was holding abbreviated Erev Yom Kippur Services and morning services. Even though both services were short, I was so moved to be praying with other Jews and they were so welcoming, too. I did fast from sunset until lunch the next day. I do not think in any way that this was a “replacement” worship—there are no substitutes—yet I was so contented having Hillsdale College support my faith.
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Once a year, The Wall Street Journal publishes an extended report ranking US Colleges, and this that newspaper did this morning, ranking some 500 institutions. Missing from the list, however — this year, last year, and every other year in which WSJ has printed its report — is Hillsdale College.
The reason is simple. Hillsdale does not take federal money because that money comes with strings attached. Schools that do take that money are highly regulated by the federal government, and we value our independence. The Wall Street Journal and its partner in producing the report they publish annually, the Times Higher Education Supplement, do not bother to do much reporting. They get their data from the US Department of Education, which collects the pertinent information from the schools that receive federal funds, and they do not go to the trouble of securing comparable data from the handful of schools that do not take federal money. And thought this omission has been drawn to the attention of the editors of The Wall Street Journal, they have neither corrected their error nor included in their report an acknowledgement that their rankings are for this reason incomplete.
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For years we’ve been talking about the poor state of education. For conservatives, it’s even worse: our children are learning propaganda with a Progressive agenda; the government and teachers control the curriculum and textbooks to the detriment of the students; and there is no indication that anything will change soon.
It’s time that we took back education, and we can already see strategies that are beginning to support a balanced agenda for authentic learning.
MoreLast week, Ray and I flew to Colorado Springs for a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar. It was a whirlwind trip for us-we flew in Tuesday and out again on Wednesday. But in between we got to listen to speakers Dr. Larry Arnn (president of Hillsdale), Sharyl Atkisson, Frank Luntz, and our (formerly) own Mollie […]
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Three guesses to identify the U.S. college where this (unretouched) photo was taken. (The first two don’t count.) More
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In a piece I wrote a few weeks ago, we were lamenting the sad state of journalism, how it has reached a new level of bias and corruption. Many of us commented that we needed a journalism program that teaches participants the ethics of, and appropriate approach to, media reporting, and we wondered where a person might go to get a well-rounded and balanced approach. I’ve discovered one solution: Hillsdale College.
Admirably, I think, Hillsdale grounds its journalism program in “doing journalism.” It describes its program to prospective students in this way:
MoreBack in October, I asked for help in inspiring my son to apply to Hillsdale College. After a campus visit, his enthusiasm increased markedly and he applied. Last week, the college gave him the thumbs-up: More
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Next on Thinking It Through: I interview John J. Miller (@johnmiller), national correspondent for the National Review, and the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. We touch on our appreciation for Ricochet and other things, from his podcast to politics and journalism. Because of bad recording on my part in the beginning […]
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I’m just wondering if anyone has taken the Hillsdale College quiz on the Constitution. It’s pretty quick, only 5 questions. I got 5 out of 5, but I admit I was just guessing on the question that mentions Abraham Lincoln. More
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My son, a high school senior, is mulling his college choices. It’s really come down to two schools: Hillsdale and the University of Michigan. The former is my choice; the latter is his choice. (He can likely get admitted to either place.) He doesn’t object to Hillsdale, exactly. Politically and culturally, he’d fit right in. […]
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You all know Larry Arnn. He is the president of Hillsdale College, who voiced his support of Trump a few weeks ago on the Ricochet podcast. The basis for his support seemed to be that some undergrad or whatever found a few items in the Trump word salad that Dr. Arnn would find appetizing. Rob […]
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At noon, while waiting for lunch, I glanced at The Wall Street Journal and noticed that, in the “Personal Journal” section, on pp. R4-R9, that newspaper — with the help of Times Higher Education — had provided its readers with a list of 497 American colleges ranked in light of endowment, likelihood that graduates would get a job, engagement, environment, average salary of graduates, and the like.
Naturally, I looked through the list to see where these publications ranked Hillsdale College. But I could not find it on the list. Figuring that I might have overlooked the entry, after teaching my afternoon seminar and participating in the oral examination of a graduate student, I went to the website, which had a convenient search facility. When I typed in Hillsdale, it did not come up. There was, however, another way to search. One could do so by state, city, and so forth. So I typed in Michigan and learned that, on the website, they ranked many more than 497 institutions.
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Ricochet members enjoyed dinner before Michael’s signature presentation on Sept. 22. Naturally, nearly half of my dinner companions pictured here are authors, so there was some exchanging of books going on! (See all meetups at Ricochetmeetup.com) From Left to Right; John Crisler, Karli, Richard Easton, John Miller, Hillsdale students Josh, Anders, Michael P. Ramirez, Vectorman, […]
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Ricochetti are invited to join two-time Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Michael P. Ramirez and John Miller for an exclusive dinner this Thursday at 5:45 near Hillsdale College, Mi. Following Michael’s 8 PM public speech and slide show at Lane Hall 125 on campus, we’ll cap the evening with drinks and conversation at a local watering hole. Be […]
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On April 27, there is a President’s Club dinner in Bellevue, and on April 28 there is a one-evening dinner/seminar, also in Bellevue. Are any other Ricochet members going to either function? Ray and I are going on the Hillsdale cruise to Alaska in late July, leaving from Vancouver BC. Are any members going on […]
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As you no doubt know, Hillsdale College posts online courses that you can take for no cost. One is underway right now on the implications of the Constitution for public policy. I was assigned the First Amendment:
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Back on March 2, 2016, Hugh Hewitt interviewed the president of Hillsdale College, Dr. Larry Arnn, about the Donald Trump candidacy. The segment was released in podcast form as part of the Hillsdale Dialogues Podcast. You can also listen to it online here in streaming format. Go ahead and give it a listen. Arnn has […]
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With the federal Department of Education now overseeing $1.2 trillion in student-loan debt, attention has been driven to the cost of tuition at our institutions of higher education. While it may appear that the causation runs from higher tuition to student debt, it’s more likely that it runs the other way.
When the federal government attempted to increase the number of low-income homeowners by requiring banks to increase the percentage of their loans to low-income households, and by purchasing mortgages through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the result was a sustained increase in housing prices and a vast expansion of mortgage debt. We’re pretty well aware of how that ended up.
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