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Special Report

of Hillsdale College, the campus tour
included visits to the Central Hall,
an iconic bell towered Gothic build-
ing that serves as the college’s admin
headquarters; the neoclassical Christ
Chapel; Mossey Library which houses
over 250,000 printed volumes; Slay-
ton Arboretum, a 14 acre botanical
garden featuring ponds, rock gar-
dens, bridges, waterfalls, and a rustic
amphitheatre; Liberty Walk, a stately
quadrangle lined with bronze statues
of icons of Anglo-American history in-
cluding George Washington, Abraham
Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Margaret
Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan. Cur-
rently, Hillsdale College has 1,562 un-
dergraduate and 59 graduate students Dr. Coupland: classical core curriculum Lincoln: sharpened focus suggestions
mentored by 152 full-time faculty on
its musters and operates “indepen- depth, moral character, and grounded — and recounted ways and means by
dently of any government funding”. in “classical education” principles. It’s which the Hillsdale curriculum has
The campus tour was followed by pertinent to note, he added, that Hill- ameliorated the growing problem of
early dinner and cocktails hosted by sdale College defines itself as a “clas- student distraction and attention defi-
Dr. Arnn. sical liberal arts college” in which all cit in the digital age.
MAY 23, DAY 2. The day began early with undergrads are obliged to “study a “Rather than relying on technol-
a breakfast meeting, during which classical liberal arts core curriculum in ogy to entertain students, the Hills-
Access USA’s Ravaglia and Bauer for- addition to their major field of study”. dale model emphasises rich content,
mally welcomed delegates and reiter- The presentation was followed by strong teacher leadership, and student
ated the summit’s agenda and goals. a 30-minute discussion among del- accountability. In classical curricu-
The first workshop of the leadership egates with Rupa Chakravarty, lum classrooms, focus is sharpened
summit, ‘Measuring Effective- director of the CBSE-affiliated Sunc- through engaging material, direct
ness & Developing Excellence’, ity School, Gurugram and Vijayal- instruction, and discussion-based
was conducted by Dr. Daniel Cou- akshmi, principal of Ugdam School, learning, supported by clear routines
pland, Dean of the Diana Davis Spen- Ahmedabad, comparing and contrast- like note-taking and annotation. Tech-
cer Graduate School of Classical Edu- ing teacher development systems in nology used purposefully to visualise
cation and Chairman and Professor India with the model advocated by ideas plays a supporting role in devel-
of the Education Department at Hill- Dr. Coupland. oping the teacher-student relation-
sdale College. workshop of the leadership summit ship,” said Lincoln.
After a brief tea break, the second
D URING HIS 50-minute was led by Rebecca Lincoln, Direc- provoked a lively debate on teacher
Ms. Lincoln’s insights-rich address
tor of teacher support at Hillsdale Col-
development theory and static curri-
address, Dr. Coupland,
an alum of Oakland and
K-12 outreach programme for teacher
tal screen usage by children in India.
Michigan state universi- lege, which runs a widely acclaimed cula, and the growing problem of digi-
ties, defined high-quality schools as development. Under this programme, Discussions on prevalent practices
institutions with excellent teachers. Hillsdale College provides its teacher in Indian K-12 education were led by
Critiquing prevalent teacher prepara- training curricula to affiliated schools Dr. Gunmeet Bindra, Principal of
tion models in the US as overly stan- based on its classical education phi- Daly College, Indore; Manjot Dhil-
dardised, academically weak, and ide- losophy. lon, Director of Invictus International
ology driven, Dr. Coupland advocated In her engaging address titled School, Amritsar and Neeta Raina,
teacher development programs rooted ‘Creating Focus and Overcom- Director, New Initiatives and Strategic
in strong subject knowledge, exposure ing Distraction’, Lincoln reasserted Planning of The Millennium Schools.
to master teachers, and deep engage- Hillsdale College’s philosophy of clas- After lunch, delegates were treated
ment with education philosophy. He sical education — “the cultivation of to an absorbing 90-minute workshop
called for teacher development pro- wisdom and virtue through the study on ‘The Importance of Experi-
grammes that prioritise intellectual of the liberal arts and the great books” ence in Education’ featuring three

78 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2025