Dear  John,

As we’ve started into some of the busiest educational months at the Kirk Center, I’ve encountered many terrific students ranging from high school to graduate school level. Today we hear a lot of bad news about contemporary educational experiences. I want to share a few heartening experiences from recent seminars.

Below are a range of comments from students at Sacred Heart Academy in Grand Rapids, Michigan, college students at Calvin University, and graduate students from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s prestigious Richard M. Weaver Fellowship Program. 

The high school students discussed “What Is An American?” with the Acton Institute’s Director of Research, John Pinheiro. Their teacher, Isaac Kirschner, was a Kirk Center intern last summer and returned with his class. Calvin University students engaged with their professor, David Urban, in a lively reading from Russell Kirk’s Concise Guide to Conservatism. And the impressive Weaver Fellows took part in a Liberty Fund colloquium on the “Impartial Spectator in Adam Smith and Jane Austen.” Paul Mueller, King’s College professor of economics and politics, led the discussion. 

What did these students have to say about their time?

• “The Kirk Center is a unique and special space for fostering the Western tradition—I've had the opportunity to reflect with other scholars on conservatism in America, the importance of liberal education, and the good life.”
• “The format was highly conducive to helping me learn how to participate fruitfully in consequential intellectual conversations.”
• “I found the pairing of Smith’s text with Pride and Prejudice to be so helpful in stimulating conversation and bringing out aspects of each text I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.”
• “It was a fantastic experience that produced fruitful conversations that were highly interactive.”
• “Visiting the Kirk Center feels like an intimate experience, where students are known and cared for personally and professionally.”
• “Everything about the environment is lovely; the setting, the people, the tenor, the culture, the ideas.”
• “The Kirk Center has a culture of hospitality, which is the best food for excellent conversation, reevaluation, or perhaps re-understanding of one’s own principles, and deep, lasting friendships.”

Their further comments show an understanding of the crucial nature of place and personal connectedness to their own growth:

• “This is a place where conservative intellectuals can go to be amongst like-minded people and resources that will encourage and support you in your efforts.”

• “It is a wonderful retreat in the middle of a small town. A great place for academic endeavors.”

• “The Kirk Center far exceeded my expectations. The hospitality, kindness, and particularly the firm hope in persons and the persuasion of truth were deeply inspiring. Funnily enough, it reminded me of Ranson’s house in C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.”

• “The seminar was phenomenal. My camaraderie with my fellow students, and the seminar discussions were so interesting that we continued them over lunch and in free time. I particularly enjoyed the conversation on the relation of marriage to humor and comedy.”

• “If you have a chance to come to the Kirk Center, do it! Be open and eager to participate and learn; you will love it.”

• “Such an amazing, welcoming environment, and a place worth seeing before you die.”

Although these are more quotes than I usually include, I thought the range of students we’ve had the past couple months captured well the “magic” of our educational program. They said it better than I could! Many thanks to you and all the Kirk Center’s friends for making possible programs that turn the gray skies of modern education blue. 

This month, our publications manager has selected an essay that is on many people’s list of favorite Kirk essays, entitled Virtue: Can It Be Taught? That was a difficult question for Socrates, and it is an even thornier one for us today. With his usual erudition, Kirk clarifies the meaning of virtue, distinguishes moral and intellectual virtues, and illuminates latent sources capable of igniting active virtue in this land of ours.

Last week, I attended the Bradley Foundation Prizes ceremony in Washington, D.C. These prestigious prizes recognize exemplary lifetime achievement in promoting ideas that shape sound public policy and advance freedom. One of the awardees was Betsy DeVos, Eleventh U.S. Secretary of Education.

Secretary DeVos gave a memorable talk reflecting on her recent trip to the Holy Land. She spoke as a lover of trees, and of how the trees she encountered in Israel, with their deep and sturdy roots, were planted for the benefit of later generations. So it is with education. She is a worthy recipient of the Bradley Prize.

If you are able to be in the Grand Rapids area next week, you can hear Betsy DeVos champion educational freedom and its essential connection to sinking those sturdy roots into the soil of our culture. She will be participating in the Kirk Center’s “What Do Conservatives Believe?” conversation with Mike Pence on Wednesday, May 31. There is still time to join us, but note that registration does close on Sunday, May 28. I hope to see you on Wednesday!

Until then,