What do Hillsdale Classical Schools teach students?
Students in Hillsdale’s member schools receive a thorough and well-rounded American classical education in the liberal arts and sciences that reflects Hillsdale College’s course of study for undergraduates. A more detailed overview of Hillsdale College’s recommended K-12 curriculum is available here.
Who are the teachers in a Hillsdale Member School?
Hillsdale encourages schools to seek out, reward, and retain the very best teachers. These teachers come from a variety of backgrounds, including graduates from renowned schools of higher learning current public and private school teachers who are seeking a more robust and rewarding teaching experience, and adult professionals making a mid-life career change to the classroom. What they all have in common is a zeal for learning, a love of their subject matter, a sense of wonder, and the ability to share that wonder and knowledge with students.
In an excellent classical school, teachers are open partners to parents, and they are worthy of parents’ trust. A list of teaching opportunities in Hillsdale Classical Schools is available here.
Do teachers at Hillsdale Member Schools need to be certified?
Hillsdale Member Schools must comply with all laws, which include laws governing certification. Since teacher certification regulations vary state-by-state, many teachers are certified and many are not, all in accordance with state law.
Are Hillsdale Member Schools partisan or politicized?
The Hillsdale College K-12 Education Office is focused on education, not politics. Teachers in Hillsdale-affiliated schools are strongly encouraged not to spend time in the classroom commenting on current affairs. Curricular materials likewise aim to provide a fair, balanced, and honest account in every discipline, including history and civics.
Hillsdale College is a Christian college. Are Hillsdale Classical Schools Christian schools?
Some of the private schools Hillsdale College affiliates with are Christian. None of the charter schools Hillsdale affiliates with are Christian or religious in any way, per state and federal law. None of the resources or consultation offered to these charter schools by Hillsdale's K-12 Education Office are Christian.
How do Hillsdale Member Schools that are charter schools teach religious topics?
Hillsdale Member Schools that are charter schools do not teach religion or theology, nor do they offer school-sanctioned religious practices or traditions. In history class, for example, students may learn about the ideas that shaped historical actions, including religious ideas. But instruction in religion is for the sake of cultural literacy, not to promote one religion over another or to promote religious belief in general.
Does Hillsdale's K-12 curriculum only focus on American history and civics?
No. The curriculum is well-rounded and thorough. While Hillsdale College is known for its scholarship on American history, literature, and government, and while American history and civics have been sorely neglected in conventional education, Hillsdale Member Schools aim to teach every subject in the best way and to standards far higher than what is expected of students in most schools. A complete overview of all subjects and their roles in the curriculum of Hillsdale Member Schools is available here.
How does Hillsdale decide what history content to teach?
Hillsdale uses the following principle to determine what students should learn in history and civics: What ideas, words, and deeds have most significantly formed the world into which students were born? Studying the answers to this question provides students with the fullest understanding of the world in which they will live. Of course, this question is not easy to answer. But it does mean that Hillsdale Member Schools do not decide what to teach about history based on a political ideology, America’s successes, America’s faults, or the skin color of historical figures or students.
Do the Hillsdale College K-12 curricular recommendations "whitewash" or "distort" history?
Hillsdale’s K-12 recommendations reflect an honest commitment to the truth. Rather than predetermining what we hope to find—and cherry-picking, obscuring, or even fabricating “facts” to fit preconceived notions—these curricula begin with searching for what happened and the contemporaneously stated reasons for why it happened.
The Hillsdale curricular recommendations respect the inherent dignity of both the student and historical figures. They do not whitewash or rewrite. The curriculum also does not ignore “warts,” if those “warts”—as with America’s noblest moments—are significant enough to fit the time restraints of K-12 schooling. It does not claim to be immune to conversation or disagreement, or to be “the last word.” But it does argue that this content is true and that it is what American students should learn first.
Hillsdale College hopes that students in its affiliated schools will graduate with a reflective and mature perspective on America, one which appreciates our unprecedented founding, a product of reflection and choice, and measures the health of our republic in light of the standards set forth in our founding documents.
What do Hillsdale Member Schools teach regarding sexuality?
Hillsdale Member Schools believe parents should have control over how their children learn about sex and gender. Teachers do not talk with children in kindergarten through third grade about sex, sexuality, or gender. In the remaining grades, teachers instruct about human biology as it relates to reproduction within science class. Schools must also follow the relevant state laws regulating these discussions.