My goodness. I am emotionally moved. I will be showing this in my classrooms next week, as I will be reviewing the guide to student’s Mid-Term Thesis, due in February of 2018. For the past three years for the first week or two, I’ve taught on the subject of Plato’s Ideal Forms in my English classes (7-12, according to grade level) and introduced a new Annual Theme that serves as a critical talking point for the year.
First was “The Ideal Form” when we compared Plato’s idea with God’s in Philippians 4:8. Then last year was “Beauty” and this year is “Good[ness].” The Final Written Essay for each piece of literature we read is finding the respective virtue in the book and using the text in citation as support for the answer given. My students have written on the subject of Beauty to be found in Auschwitz (“Night”… Juliek’s playing of Beethoven in the barracks) and Hell (Dante’s “Inferno”… Dante’s sympathy for the Francesca and Paolo); about Goodness in the counter-actions to Screwtape and Wormwood in Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters”… the thoughts brought to the fore by these young people is in itself moving. And now I see this video in support of my teaching… and am humbled and edified.
If I could go to college again, I would choose Hillsdale. No doubt in my mind. Keep up the good work… by keeping the focus on these Ideal Forms for these young people, that they are equipped to go out and resist the tragic substitutes for such classical thought, and bring others to… as Francis Schaeffer has put it… “True Truth,” as opposed to lower forms, and especially our nemesis: relative truth.
Stormfields 
My goodness. I am emotionally moved. I will be showing this in my classrooms next week, as I will be reviewing the guide to student’s Mid-Term Thesis, due in February of 2018. For the past three years for the first week or two, I’ve taught on the subject of Plato’s Ideal Forms in my English classes (7-12, according to grade level) and introduced a new Annual Theme that serves as a critical talking point for the year.
First was “The Ideal Form” when we compared Plato’s idea with God’s in Philippians 4:8. Then last year was “Beauty” and this year is “Good[ness].” The Final Written Essay for each piece of literature we read is finding the respective virtue in the book and using the text in citation as support for the answer given. My students have written on the subject of Beauty to be found in Auschwitz (“Night”… Juliek’s playing of Beethoven in the barracks) and Hell (Dante’s “Inferno”… Dante’s sympathy for the Francesca and Paolo); about Goodness in the counter-actions to Screwtape and Wormwood in Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters”… the thoughts brought to the fore by these young people is in itself moving. And now I see this video in support of my teaching… and am humbled and edified.
If I could go to college again, I would choose Hillsdale. No doubt in my mind. Keep up the good work… by keeping the focus on these Ideal Forms for these young people, that they are equipped to go out and resist the tragic substitutes for such classical thought, and bring others to… as Francis Schaeffer has put it… “True Truth,” as opposed to lower forms, and especially our nemesis: relative truth.
And thanks for making my day.
~ Daniel Hennessy