History, American Democracy, and the AP Test Controversy

The chief purpose of a high school education in American history is as a rite of civic membership, an act of inculcation and formation.

Of Hills and Dales – 2015 Commencement Address

The following is adapted from a speech delivered by Michael Ward on May 9, 2015, at Hillsdale College’s 163rd Commencement ceremony.

Think of the definition of “reality”; then think of making one’s own reality. Do you see that it destroys the meaning of the word to use it that way?

The political freedom that makes a liberal arts education possible requires an ongoing and active defense of liberty.

Not to know what happened before you were born, that is to be always a boy, to be forever a child.

Federal student financial assistance programs are costly, inefficient, byzantine, and fail to serve their desired objectives.

Education is something that individuals acting alone and cooperatively can do, let alone something local or state governments can do.

A technical education can make a person wealthy and famous, but it does not teach that person what is best to do with wealth and fame.

It is not enough anymore to rehearse by rote the Constitution or to celebrate it in vacuous observances.

Many of our politicians have it backwards these days. It's not a shame to lose an election. But it is a shame to serve a wrong idea