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Reforming the University: Larry Arnn at ISI’s American Politics Summit — Transcript

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  1. 0:00Hello, I'm Daniel McCarthy, vice
  2. 0:02president for the collegiate network at
  3. 0:03ISI and also the editor of Modern Age.
  4. 0:06Joining me tonight is the great and
  5. 0:08estimable Larry Arm, who is the
  6. 0:10president of Hillsdale College, which of
  7. 0:12course uh is the uh college which is
  8. 0:15responsible for the formation of ISI's
  9. 0:16own president, Johnny Burka. So that by
  10. 0:19itself would be a great claim to fame.
  11. 0:20So welcome Dr. Arin. Yeah, thank you.
  12. 0:23Very good to be with you. So, Hillsdale
  13. 0:25College is in a category of its own and
  14. 0:27it has gone from strength to strength
  15. 0:29under your leadership. I was curious
  16. 0:31though, what prospects do you see for
  17. 0:32the rest of American higher education?
  18. 0:34Can it be redeemed? Can it be restored?
  19. 0:37Of course, it can be redeemed and
  20. 0:38restored. A college colleges are two and
  21. 0:42a half millennia old. The need for them
  22. 0:45won't go away. It's very hard to fix
  23. 0:47them and it'll take a long time. Uh the
  24. 0:49reason is uh the one big sticky point is
  25. 0:55uh graduate degrees is what you need to
  26. 0:58teach in a college and the graduate
  27. 1:00schools are a mess. So the quantity like
  28. 1:03if you could pass a law that all the
  29. 1:06colleges need to be decent tomorrow
  30. 1:09there wouldn't be anybody who knew what
  31. 1:10that meant to teach and there were not
  32. 1:11enough people. But yeah there's there
  33. 1:14exciting things happening in K12. Uh my
  34. 1:17own view about what the government
  35. 1:18should do is decentralize it. Uh there's
  36. 1:20too much control in the middle. That's
  37. 1:24especially wrong in education because
  38. 1:27learning happens in classrooms. You
  39. 1:28should have authority and resources near
  40. 1:30them. And if you do that, there'll be uh
  41. 1:34certainly K12 there could be a
  42. 1:36revolution pretty soon. But uh in higher
  43. 1:40ed, there will be a steady improvement I
  44. 1:42think. So you've already half
  45. 1:44anticipated my next question. And so
  46. 1:46Hillsdale is rather unusual. There's
  47. 1:47Hillsdale, Grove City, a handful of
  48. 1:49others perhaps in taking no federal
  49. 1:51funds whatsoever. And so I was curious,
  50. 1:53is there a role for the federal
  51. 1:54government, especially now that there
  52. 1:56may be a better administration coming
  53. 1:58in? Is there a role for the federal
  54. 2:00government in restoring higher education
  55. 2:01in America? Yeah. Well, there there is
  56. 2:04because uh first of all, the Department
  57. 2:05of Education is there and they're not
  58. 2:07likely to get rid of it. Uh it could be
  59. 2:10a force for this decentralization that
  60. 2:12I've spoke of. Uh it should encourage
  61. 2:15states, you know, the way the federal
  62. 2:17government works is what there are close
  63. 2:20to three million federal employees and
  64. 2:23close to 20 million state employees and
  65. 2:26through its spending power, the federal
  66. 2:28government tells them what to do a lot.
  67. 2:31Well, what if there was uh encouragement
  68. 2:34to states to start charter schools and
  69. 2:38private vouchers and stuff like that?
  70. 2:40That would be very healthy. And in
  71. 2:43higher ed uh you know they they're
  72. 2:46starting these centers. Some states are
  73. 2:49starting centers where they teach
  74. 2:52sanity. There's some good ones few and
  75. 2:56uh there should be more of that. So a
  76. 2:58couple of our founding fathers I think
  77. 2:59maybe Jefferson and Madison um thought
  78. 3:02about the idea of a national university
  79. 3:04sponsored by the federal government.
  80. 3:05Would that be a good idea? Uh no no. Uh
  81. 3:09well it's I have written about that.
  82. 3:11That's a very interesting thing. I sort
  83. 3:14of modeled a graduate school that we
  84. 3:16have at Hillsdale on that idea. Uh and
  85. 3:19they had a curriculum for it and you
  86. 3:21know the beginnings of one and they had
  87. 3:23some really neat neat ideas and George
  88. 3:26Washington left his largest bequest
  89. 3:29outside his family to support that
  90. 3:32thing. And then George Washington and
  91. 3:34and uh Thomas Jefferson and James
  92. 3:38Madison and James Monroe all tried to do
  93. 3:42it and they didn't get it done. Uh as a
  94. 3:45matter of fact, James Madison was
  95. 3:47instructed by the chairman of a
  96. 3:49committee by by the name of Mi Mitchell.
  97. 3:51I remember from Kentucky that no
  98. 3:54President Madison, you can't do this.
  99. 3:57The Constitution that you wrote does not
  100. 3:59permit it.
  101. 4:02I've always thought that was funny. But
  102. 4:04they they had the idea that uh at the
  103. 4:07top
  104. 4:08level there's some stuff you need to
  105. 4:11know to be a statesman in America and we
  106. 4:13should have a place where you learn that
  107. 4:15and uh that is that is a very good idea.
  108. 4:18I'm interested to know about the
  109. 4:20response of Hillsdale's peers or at
  110. 4:22least competitors to your success. Do
  111. 4:25you find that uh other colleges and
  112. 4:27universities are starting to emulate
  113. 4:28what Hillsdale does or do you see that
  114. 4:30they are more uh perhaps opposed to you,
  115. 4:32critical or or do they just ignore
  116. 4:35Hillsdale? All three.
  117. 4:38Um we don't really
  118. 4:41have I a lot of our kids go to uh
  119. 4:44graduate and go to top graduate schools
  120. 4:47in Ivy League and other places and
  121. 4:49professional schools and medical schools
  122. 4:51and they seem friendly to them. Uh and
  123. 4:54then
  124. 4:56uh you know colleges it's it's not the
  125. 4:59custom in our world to beat each other
  126. 5:02up institutionally a lot. I may have
  127. 5:05been more guilty of it than anybody. Uh
  128. 5:08and then there are a procession of
  129. 5:10people who come through Hillsdale
  130. 5:11College saying how do you do this? And I
  131. 5:14got a letter this morning from somebody
  132. 5:16and they want to come and visit
  133. 5:18and te talk to us. What do you do? And
  134. 5:22uh yeah and the private college world is
  135. 5:25very troubled now lot you know their
  136. 5:28bankruptcies and uh going to be more I
  137. 5:32think and so a lot of them are very fine
  138. 5:35people and they're trying to figure out
  139. 5:36how to save themselves. Do they consult
  140. 5:39with you often on how they can do that?
  141. 5:41Yeah, it's uh yeah, like you know,
  142. 5:45several times a year we get deputations
  143. 5:47from this place or that and we're in an
  144. 5:50athletic conference and uh I helped to
  145. 5:54form it with some others and they're all
  146. 5:57good people, private Christian colleges,
  147. 6:00and some of them are in trouble and I
  148. 6:03have reason to talk with them regularly
  149. 6:05and it's, you know, it's a tall order.
  150. 6:09it uh
  151. 6:11the the a private college gets a
  152. 6:16substantial percentage of its money from
  153. 6:19the government. Mhm. And the government
  154. 6:21brings rules, hundreds of pages of rules
  155. 6:24and uh they require that you arrange
  156. 6:28your staff in certain ways so that you
  157. 6:30have people who are you're paying them
  158. 6:32but they're really working for them. And
  159. 6:35so that's awkward and it I've never
  160. 6:38worked in that situation in my life, but
  161. 6:41I imagine it complicates the management
  162. 6:43of a place quite a bit.
  163. 6:45Uh and you know it it changes
  164. 6:50uh there there are lots of colleges that
  165. 6:52get 80 or 90% of their total revenues
  166. 6:54from student tuition, room and board.
  167. 6:57And a lot of those places half to 70% of
  168. 7:00that actually is coming from the
  169. 7:02government. Mhm. And so that means that
  170. 7:05you and they're trying to make budget
  171. 7:07and if they could just get 40 more kids.
  172. 7:11I hear that that particular number comes
  173. 7:13up if we we we need 40 more kids and we
  174. 7:17can balance our budget and that means
  175. 7:19that then you're looking at the kids as
  176. 7:22a revenue stream and it changes your
  177. 7:25relation to them. I think and I in some
  178. 7:27cases I've seen it where you're
  179. 7:30reluctant to flunk them out or make it
  180. 7:34difficult and that's a that's a terrible
  181. 7:38thing. It means that there's a
  182. 7:40misalignment here that's serious and I
  183. 7:44think the government has a lot to do
  184. 7:45with that. There's a striking difference
  185. 7:47between on the one hand these
  186. 7:49institutions that take federal money and
  187. 7:51therefore are subject to many more
  188. 7:54federal restrictions uh including uh DEI
  189. 7:57requirements and any number of other um
  190. 7:59uh supposedly civil rights requirements.
  191. 8:01Uh on the one hand you have that
  192. 8:03situation but Hillsdale which is a
  193. 8:05totally free institution. It does not
  194. 8:07depend on federal money. It has a in
  195. 8:09fact much better um history of civil
  196. 8:13liberties and civil rights. uh civil
  197. 8:15rights in particular. Um it's it's
  198. 8:17always been a u a free campus. It's
  199. 8:20always been a campus which has been
  200. 8:21colorblind and um tell us a little bit
  201. 8:23about that history. Well, I've only had
  202. 8:26one job in a college in my life and I uh
  203. 8:29took the
  204. 8:30job because I found out about that. I uh
  205. 8:34I I admired Abraham Lincoln very much
  206. 8:38and there were several people at our
  207. 8:40college who got to know him and were
  208. 8:43important in his cause. We were an
  209. 8:45abolitionist college. The platform that
  210. 8:48Abraham Lincoln was elected president
  211. 8:50on, the first draft of it was written in
  212. 8:52a building that stands on our campus
  213. 8:54today. And we had more young men fight
  214. 8:57in the Civil War than any non-military
  215. 9:00college excepting Yale. And you know,
  216. 9:03compare it to the University of
  217. 9:04Michigan, which a little older than we
  218. 9:06are and was bigger at the time. They had
  219. 9:09under a hundred and we had more than
  220. 9:11500. Wow. All the boys went and that was
  221. 9:14and you know, we didn't it's never been
  222. 9:16a military college. We still have a lot
  223. 9:18of military service coming out of our
  224. 9:21place. And they just uh loved freedom
  225. 9:24and they loved their country and they
  226. 9:27had an education and they rallied to the
  227. 9:30cause. And when I learned that I and
  228. 9:32then I read the founding document of the
  229. 9:33college which was written in 1844 and is
  230. 9:36a very beautiful document and I thought
  231. 9:38to myself, huh, maybe there's a way to
  232. 9:41run that kind of railroad. So there's a
  233. 9:44prominent statue of Frederick Douglas on
  234. 9:46campus and I know that Douglas has a
  235. 9:48connection with Hillsdale, doesn't he?
  236. 9:50Spoke on the campus twice. Uh, first
  237. 9:53time in 1863, the second time after the
  238. 9:55war.
  239. 9:57uh in
  240. 10:001863 if uh he he had to be careful where
  241. 10:04he went because he was an annoyance to
  242. 10:07the Confederacy and they had people
  243. 10:09looking for him to kidnap him and take
  244. 10:11him back into slavery and that was a big
  245. 10:13trade in those days. And uh when I got
  246. 10:17to the college I knew about that. I
  247. 10:19admire Frederick Le very much. And I
  248. 10:22said to the college historian, I said,
  249. 10:24"Uh, we need a copy of his speech that
  250. 10:28he gave on the campus." And he says, "It
  251. 10:31doesn't exist." And I said, "Bound to
  252. 10:34you looked hard enough." You know, I
  253. 10:36worked for Martin Gilbert doing the
  254. 10:38church biography. If you haven't found
  255. 10:40it, it means you haven't looked hard
  256. 10:41enough. And about six months later, he
  257. 10:44showed up with it. He did find it. It's
  258. 10:46called Truth and Error and it's about
  259. 10:48slavery. It's a lovely speech. He was a
  260. 10:51very interesting man. So, America has a
  261. 10:54birthday coming up in 2026. We will be
  262. 10:56celebrating the 250th anniversary of the
  263. 10:59Declaration of Independence, uh the War
  264. 11:01of Independence and the American
  265. 11:02Founding. Uh you wrote a book about a
  266. 11:04dozen years ago called The Founders Key.
  267. 11:06And I'm curious what you'd like to see
  268. 11:08emphasized, especially in terms of the
  269. 11:11history and the philosophy of the
  270. 11:12American founding in these birthday
  271. 11:14celebrations two years from now. Well, I
  272. 11:16think uh the celebration is probably
  273. 11:18going to be fullthroatated now because
  274. 11:19there's been a recent election. I think
  275. 11:22it would not have been before that. Uh I
  276. 11:25think uh people people need to read it.
  277. 11:28It's very beautiful. uh it is the final
  278. 11:31cause to use
  279. 11:34that classic logical term of the United
  280. 11:37States. is the reason it exists and it
  281. 11:41also describes inside itself the formal
  282. 11:44cause which comes later the the
  283. 11:48constitution they lay out uh in the
  284. 11:52declaration of independence in their
  285. 11:54criticisms of the king what would be the
  286. 11:57main features of a proper constitution
  287. 11:59and they are separation of powers and
  288. 12:01consent of the govern representation
  289. 12:04uh and and you know the constitution is
  290. 12:07described in that very beautiful
  291. 12:09document and of course the beginning and
  292. 12:11the end of it are uh written in the most
  293. 12:15lovely timeless language.
  294. 12:18Uh it's about eternal things and the
  295. 12:22things we will do here now to serve them
  296. 12:26and our freedom. I wanted to ask you
  297. 12:29about your own intellectual trajectory.
  298. 12:31So you're originally from Arkansas. I'm
  299. 12:32originally from Missouri myself. I'm
  300. 12:34curious uh what was it like growing up
  301. 12:36in Arkansas and what led you onto the
  302. 12:38path that has ultimately uh ended in or
  303. 12:41you know issued in uh being the
  304. 12:42president of Hillsdale College and
  305. 12:44leading Hillsdale College from strength
  306. 12:45to strength. Well, people from Arkansas
  307. 12:47are proud of it and they're right to be.
  308. 12:50I I'm a big admirer of the current
  309. 12:52governor of Arkansas, Sarah Sanders, and
  310. 12:55she talked I'm older than she is, but
  311. 12:57she talked to me like my mother did. I
  312. 12:59went to her office not long ago and she
  313. 13:01said, "I was wondering when you were
  314. 13:03going to show up here." Uh, Arkansas's,
  315. 13:06you know, I grew up in Pocahontas,
  316. 13:07Arkansas, and that's just idealic. It
  317. 13:10uh, you know, we we had a river, we were
  318. 13:13on it a lot, we had hills, we climbed
  319. 13:17them, uh, we shot rats in the city dump.
  320. 13:21So, tremendous. Best hunting I ever did.
  321. 13:23And,
  322. 13:24uh, uh, so it's it was like that. And
  323. 13:28then uh we had a grammar teacher and two
  324. 13:32math teachers in my school and they were
  325. 13:36awesome. Uh I can diagram an English
  326. 13:39sentence and uh cuz I had to stand and
  327. 13:42do it on the board and uh so that was
  328. 13:45great. I enjoyed that very much. And
  329. 13:48uh later I learned what learning really
  330. 13:51is. Uh that happened in undergraduate
  331. 13:54school. I try to get out of it. But
  332. 13:57there was a mandatory course in
  333. 13:59political thought and it was taught by a
  334. 14:02great man who's who's friend of mine
  335. 14:05today. Uh and we read Plato's Republic
  336. 14:09and I sort of saw for the first
  337. 14:12time what would be the most important
  338. 14:15things to know and it changed a lot of
  339. 14:18things about me. Didn't go to law
  340. 14:20school. uh almost almost did uh always
  341. 14:24wanted to when I was a boy and I just
  342. 14:27thought I have to find out more about
  343. 14:29this and uh that's indirectly he want
  344. 14:32you and I know each other you are a
  345. 14:34student of the great Harry Jaffa and I
  346. 14:37was curious how did you first learn
  347. 14:38about Jaffa and decide that you wanted
  348. 14:40to take his classes well this man who
  349. 14:42was my teacher in undergraduate school
  350. 14:44his name is Jeffrey Wallen he was a
  351. 14:46student of professor Jeff and uh I
  352. 14:50followed went back to his office. Uh, I
  353. 14:53was actually, you know, I was like most
  354. 14:56young men, cocky and unreasonable and
  355. 15:00thought I knew everything. And it took
  356. 15:02about 3 weeks of him wiping the floor
  357. 15:04with me and reading a beautiful passage
  358. 15:06in book one of of the
  359. 15:10republic and I had a revelation and I
  360. 15:13followed him back to his office and
  361. 15:14said, "I need to know more about this."
  362. 15:17And he said, "Well, you have another
  363. 15:18semester." I said, 'I wonder if it'll
  364. 15:21take longer than that. And he said,
  365. 15:25uh, it will. He said, 'You'll have to
  366. 15:28keep it up. And I said,
  367. 15:31uh, I might go to graduate school. Is
  368. 15:34that where you learned this? And he
  369. 15:36said, you're going to law school.
  370. 15:38Everybody knows that. I was in some
  371. 15:40fancy ones. And, uh, I said, well,
  372. 15:44maybe. And I sort of had to talk him
  373. 15:47into it. You know, there's a thing I
  374. 15:49understand it better now. Uh he did we
  375. 15:53didn't know each other very well. We do
  376. 15:55now. And uh a professor might be
  377. 15:59embarrassed to send a student to his
  378. 16:02teacher cuz what if the kid's useless?
  379. 16:05Uh and so at first he I I recall he was
  380. 16:09a little reluctant. He tried to get me
  381. 16:12to consider other options. Uh, and uh, I
  382. 16:17kept saying, "Is this the best?" And
  383. 16:20he'd say, "Well, yes." And I'd say, "And
  384. 16:22that particular man was a very great
  385. 16:25teacher."
  386. 16:27Uh, and but this one's good. And I'd
  387. 16:30say, "Well, I'd want to go to the best
  388. 16:32one." I was too cocky, you know. He
  389. 16:34said, "What if you don't get in?" I
  390. 16:35said, "I will." And I did. And, uh,
  391. 16:38that's how all that happened. I uh he
  392. 16:40he's he lives in uh outside DC now. Uh
  393. 16:45he's not a teacher anymore and I'd like
  394. 16:48to say he inherited some money and went
  395. 16:50to seed because his his uh he's a very
  396. 16:53good man but and a friend but his uh
  397. 16:59uh his calling was to be a teacher. He
  398. 17:02is splendid teacher and he's done some
  399. 17:05teaching for Hillsdale College. But uh
  400. 17:09yeah, you know those people like that I
  401. 17:11mean you have them too right isi that's
  402. 17:14part of what it's about. Uh you know do
  403. 17:19a very good job teaching some lovely
  404. 17:22things and see who perks up and notices
  405. 17:26and uh so that was a benefit that came
  406. 17:28to me and I'm grateful for it. Did you
  407. 17:31find that it was uh stressful taking
  408. 17:32classes with Harry Jaffa? Could he be
  409. 17:34very forceful in in class? And was it uh
  410. 17:37were students afraid to challenge him or
  411. 17:38question him? No, he wasn't like that at
  412. 17:41all. He was a he he actually he was a
  413. 17:43very belligerent man.
  414. 17:45Um he uh was not uh with the students is
  415. 17:51a way. He was a
  416. 17:54uh he was an interesting man. He he uh
  417. 17:58was, you know, he fought with all kinds
  418. 17:59of people, including many conservatives,
  419. 18:02and he was fierce in those fights. Uh
  420. 18:05with us, what he was like was the
  421. 18:08challenge was to get him to
  422. 18:11explain cuz uh one of my theories cuz I
  423. 18:14I was around him
  424. 18:16for how long? 1974 until 2000 when I
  425. 18:20came to the college. Uh and he died
  426. 18:24sometime after 2000. So I had to do with
  427. 18:26him after that. But I was around him a
  428. 18:28lot for 26 years. And uh the challen I I
  429. 18:34think he was uh when he became excited
  430. 18:37when he became interested deeply
  431. 18:39interested and when he was dealing with
  432. 18:42the central things he was as good a
  433. 18:44lecturer as I ever saw. Uh he was not a
  434. 18:49systematic organized get through the
  435. 18:52material kind of teacher. And so you had
  436. 18:55to
  437. 18:57uh you had to work him, had to be
  438. 19:01pouncing, answering questions, and
  439. 19:04sometimes he wouldn't answer. And if you
  440. 19:06kept at it, you would get your answer.
  441. 19:09Uh I rode a
  442. 19:10bicycle probably 20,000 miles because he
  443. 19:13was a bicycle racer. And uh and so I
  444. 19:18thought, I'm going to learn everything
  445. 19:19this guy's got to teach. So, I took it
  446. 19:22up and I rode bicycles for a long time.
  447. 19:24I raced them a little. I was just like I
  448. 19:26was at a high school athlete. I was good
  449. 19:29enough to do it, loved to do it, not
  450. 19:31good enough to really, you know, really
  451. 19:33do it. And uh so yeah he he he was uh
  452. 19:37and you know he I remember a class one
  453. 19:41time this happened would happen several
  454. 19:44times something would come like he liked
  455. 19:49uh liberal students to attack him and he
  456. 19:54was very good at that and he was gentle
  457. 19:56with them but uh but he was profound and
  458. 20:01so once he got going and the class was
  459. 20:04supposed to be over at
  460. 20:064:30 and it was over at 6:00 and nobody
  461. 20:11noticed and uh came out and it was dark
  462. 20:15and he
  463. 20:16uh explained what it is that a human
  464. 20:19being can do that a dog cannot and it's
  465. 20:23you know I can give that explanation
  466. 20:24today but I heard him do it more than
  467. 20:26once but that was one of his best things
  468. 20:28uh and like he he's you know as you know
  469. 20:32masterful teacher
  470. 20:35uh the fundamentals are so well known to
  471. 20:39them that they can apply them and
  472. 20:42simplify them and uh that's magical when
  473. 20:46you get to hear that and great teachers
  474. 20:48we have several at Hills we have many at
  475. 20:50Hillsdale College who can do that and
  476. 20:52the kids follow them around like puppy
  477. 20:55dogs hoping they'll say something and uh
  478. 20:59yeah so Professor Jaffa was like that
  479. 21:01you also worked very closely with Sir
  480. 21:03Martin Gilbert and uh completed the uh
  481. 21:06Churchill u biography and uh worked on
  482. 21:09the documents um including six volumes
  483. 21:11of them as I as if I recall correctly.
  484. 21:14Um I'm curious what lessons do you think
  485. 21:16today's leaders and perhaps in
  486. 21:17particular uh the newly elected
  487. 21:19president should take from the example
  488. 21:21of Winston Churchill?
  489. 21:23Uh well he's
  490. 21:25uh Donald Trump has the root of the
  491. 21:27matter in him as regards Churchill. Uh
  492. 21:31what I would say to uh anybody is if you
  493. 21:35want to cultivate prudence, Aristotle
  494. 21:38says you can learn that best from the
  495. 21:40people who have the reputation for it.
  496. 21:43And and then he names Pericles as the
  497. 21:45best
  498. 21:46example. Uh you should read Winston
  499. 21:49Churchill. He wrote over 40 books. He
  500. 21:52wrote 8,000 pages of speeches himself,
  501. 21:55over a thousand published articles. and
  502. 21:59they are riveting and they are a
  503. 22:00reservoir of political wisdom. Uh the
  504. 22:04big things in Churchill's life uh
  505. 22:06Churchill's life is tragic as well as
  506. 22:10glorious as all political lives are by
  507. 22:12the way. When he was a young man he set
  508. 22:16out to prevent socialism and big
  509. 22:19wars and it was his fate to be unable he
  510. 22:22did try to prevent both world wars. uh
  511. 22:26it was his fate to lead effectively and
  512. 22:31to
  513. 22:32disastrous diminishment of his country
  514. 22:35just better than being beat by the
  515. 22:37Nazis. Uh and then socialism followed
  516. 22:41but he warned about it in beautiful
  517. 22:43language all the time. And uh that's one
  518. 22:46thing we t
  519. 22:49uh Republican statesmen who like Winston
  520. 22:54Churchill don't understand that thing
  521. 22:56about caution about war and Donald Trump
  522. 23:01does. Also a big thing with Churchill
  523. 23:04was uh he he thought the British people
  524. 23:08were the right ones because they had a
  525. 23:11right to decide the fate of the nation.
  526. 23:15and he thought they'd probably do a
  527. 23:17better job than anybody else. And so he
  528. 23:19was an explainer. He uh uh sometimes
  529. 23:24politicians, I think of two recent
  530. 23:27presidents,
  531. 23:28uh they become imperative with the
  532. 23:32American people. They wag their figure
  533. 23:34finger and tell you how it's going to
  534. 23:36be, how you ought to be, right?
  535. 23:38Churchill was not given to that. uh he
  536. 23:42it's generous to explain to put the
  537. 23:46argument together so that people can
  538. 23:48follow it right and that's a that's an
  539. 23:51art that's first of all it's not easy
  540. 23:55but Churchill cultivated that art he
  541. 23:57worked at it and uh you know he he got
  542. 24:01into a place
  543. 24:04where he was the one to lead in the
  544. 24:07worst crisis in British history and he
  545. 24:10got him through it and that's because of
  546. 24:13his nature and his character and the way
  547. 24:14he built it. So in addition to leading
  548. 24:16Hillsdale College, you also teach and
  549. 24:19I'm curious when you're teaching
  550. 24:20Aristotle for example, um are you making
  551. 24:22new discoveries each time you do so or
  552. 24:24are you finding new angles on the
  553. 24:26material? They you know uh a classroom
  554. 24:29uh nothing in education by the way is
  555. 24:32something that one person does to
  556. 24:34somebody else. It won't work. uh what
  557. 24:38you know is irrelevant unless they are
  558. 24:42focused with their whole being on the
  559. 24:44thing. And we're blessed at Hillsdale
  560. 24:47College. The kids are smart and very
  561. 24:48beautiful. It's hard to get in. You got
  562. 24:50to sign the honor
  563. 24:51code. And so now you're with a bunch of
  564. 24:55fellow human beings reading this thing
  565. 24:58with attention and what everybody says
  566. 25:01is meaningful, even if it's wrong. and
  567. 25:04uh and you never uh I never teach
  568. 25:08anything that uh I don't see it aresh
  569. 25:13and better and sometimes significant
  570. 25:16points uh it's been revealed to me I can
  571. 25:19remember 400 years ago professor Jaffa I
  572. 25:23was learning Greek which I've mostly
  573. 25:24forgotten now to my shrin but I knew
  574. 25:27knew it a bit and there's a word in
  575. 25:30Greek cray and
  576. 25:32uh
  577. 25:34uh he he translated the word as good
  578. 25:39and I said doesn't that mean necessary
  579. 25:42it's just a vocabulary thing right he
  580. 25:45said oh that's a brilliant insight now I
  581. 25:49didn't know why it was at the time but I
  582. 25:52I thought about it a long time and I see
  583. 25:54the good is also the necessary and uh so
  584. 25:58yeah things like that happen in you know
  585. 26:00every it's uh
  586. 26:02I I teach uh all afternoon Mondays
  587. 26:05makeup classes on Friday because I have
  588. 26:07to do it in one sitting because I have
  589. 26:09this job and uh uh the time flies and uh
  590. 26:17if they yawn I don't like it and I give
  591. 26:19them coffee and cookies or else I throw
  592. 26:21something at them. But they seldom do
  593. 26:24and uh it's cuz it's exciting, it's fun.
  594. 26:28Do the students uh change over time? Do
  595. 26:30you find that uh generation Z is
  596. 26:32different from earlier generations or is
  597. 26:34there a uh kind of human nature that
  598. 26:37comes through in all students that is
  599. 26:38always the latter very much. Uh we you
  600. 26:42know we notice little differences. Um
  601. 26:46but
  602. 26:47uh any successful class is an
  603. 26:51achievement of everyone in it. And so
  604. 26:54when you produce that with them, it's
  605. 26:58always the same. You know, they think I
  606. 27:01I I once made a mistake. Uh we have a
  607. 27:05constitution course and we read some
  608. 27:06John
  609. 27:07Calhoun and I on my syllabus I made a
  610. 27:10mistake and I assigned the entire
  611. 27:13disposition on government to them. That
  612. 27:15was really stupid. and darned if they
  613. 27:18didn't read it. And I figured that out
  614. 27:20and I apologized to him and I said,
  615. 27:22"Okay, we're going to spend a week on
  616. 27:24this." And in the course of that week
  617. 27:27there, this particular classroom has
  618. 27:30four going around the room boards to
  619. 27:33write
  620. 27:34on. And we filled up the whole all the
  621. 27:37boards with an account of John C.
  622. 27:41Calhoun and the disc was his own
  623. 27:43government.
  624. 27:44And we when we did it and we we all took
  625. 27:48great and you know everybody helped you
  626. 27:50know what does this mean what does that
  627. 27:51mean you know what's is this important
  628. 27:53is that important you know and at the
  629. 27:56end we took great gain momentum and you
  630. 28:00know I don't even like John Calhoun by
  631. 28:02the way although I think he's formidable
  632. 28:04and uh and
  633. 28:05interesting and and I remember when the
  634. 28:08class ended on a Friday uh uh so we
  635. 28:14equivalent of two weeks, right? Because
  636. 28:15I teach whole weeks in one sitting and I
  637. 28:18did an extra class on a Friday. And we
  638. 28:22had it all up there and uh and we sat in
  639. 28:26silence for a
  640. 28:28minute. I said,
  641. 28:31"Okay, have we got that?" And three or
  642. 28:34four of them said, "That's really good."
  643. 28:38See, we did that together. And it starts
  644. 28:40with a mistake by me. Uh it's good for
  645. 28:43me to do it too cuz I read that book
  646. 28:46with better attention than I ever had.
  647. 28:49Calhoun writes
  648. 28:51uh
  649. 28:53uh paraphrase, it would be impestous to
  650. 28:56think that God would give us the gift of
  651. 28:59natural science and permit us to use it
  652. 29:02for ill. Now I think that's a
  653. 29:06misunderstanding of God and the
  654. 29:08universe. And I discovered that sense
  655. 29:11and saw its importance because we went
  656. 29:13through all that. Wonderful. So, uh I
  657. 29:16know you have a long background with
  658. 29:18ISI. I think you were a Richard Weaver
  659. 29:20fellow. Um what does ISI mean to you
  660. 29:22especially today in the 21st century?
  661. 29:24Well, I eyesize of course run by my kid
  662. 29:26Johnny and uh he's doing a good job and
  663. 29:31uh it is a it's a splendid idea. Uh and
  664. 29:37it helped me go to graduate school. I
  665. 29:39serve on its board. Uh I'm too busy to
  666. 29:43serve on board so I serve on the ones
  667. 29:45where I have to and this is one of them.
  668. 29:48And uh first Chris Long and then Thomas
  669. 29:51Lynch who's now the chairman of the
  670. 29:52board. They both said to me, "You have
  671. 29:54to do this. We gave you money in
  672. 29:56graduate school." So, I'm conscripted.
  673. 29:58But I find it rewarding. And its idea,
  674. 30:01one of its ideas is, cuz see, I I I very
  675. 30:05much believe this, by the
  676. 30:09way, you can't teach everybody
  677. 30:12everything. And you can't teach
  678. 30:14everybody to the same depth. But if you
  679. 30:17find the right people
  680. 30:20uh and help them learn because you don't
  681. 30:23really teach them either they learn you
  682. 30:25help
  683. 30:26them then they will reach many people
  684. 30:30and uh so that's the idea behind ISI and
  685. 30:33it's a good idea. Great. Well thank you
  686. 30:35very much Dr. on. I very much enjoyed
  687. 30:37this.

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