Tag: Hillsdale College

A Classical Education

Back in December I stumbled upon an online course on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It was presented by Hillsdale College and was a free course. It consisted of 4-6 lectures and I truly enjoyed it. Recently, I finished up yet another online course from Hillsdale on the History of Classical Music.

As someone who played in band throughout my school years, I was exposed to a lot of classical music. As a band member, it is an amazing experience to be playing a melody while a counter melody is playing with you. It is just as amazing when your section plays beautiful harmonies. Rehearsing a song and watching it all come together is so satisfying.

That being said, I couldn’t wait to get into this course. The overview states: Music’s ability to excite or soothe, to celebrate or console, to capture the inarticulate expressions of the human spirit make it the ideal companion for Western Civilization’s greatest achievements. Music is intertwined with the events of history. The developments of classical music correspond to key moments in science, politics, and religion. Classical music can be studied, it can be understood from the perspective of historical events and the lives of composers, but most of all, it should be enjoyed.

The instructor was Hyperion Knight and he was a wealth of knowledge. Throughout the course, he would occasionally play a piece or make an illustration on the piano for further explanation. We tend to believe that classical music is old or “ancient,” but Professor Knight was so good about relating what was going on in history at the time of some of these pieces.

The course lections were about the Development of Music, The Baroque Era (Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel), The Classical Period (Haydn and Mozart), and The Classical Period (Beethoven and Schubert). The final lecture is not a lecture at all. It is a mini concert performed by Professor Knight featuring some classical music standards.

Much like the Dickens course, I never really felt like it was a class or a lecture. It was really just an enjoyable journey through music history. Classical music is not for everyone, but if you are interested, you can enroll here: https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/classical-music

Learning a Holiday Lesson

There is a great lesson that can be learned from the conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. However, there is SO much more to the story! As you know, I have been reading this story every year since 1982. You would think that after all these years, I would have learned all that there is from this story, but that’s just not true.

While surfing through Facebook recently, an ad appeared for Hillsdale College. They offer free online courses on many topics. This particular ad was for an online course on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

I figured there had to be some sort of catch to this, but there wasn’t any. They are able to provide these course free because of donations and such, but there was no pressure to give money or anything like that. This course, for example, allows you to make a decent donation to obtain a copy of the book, if you wish.

At any rate, I just finished up this course, which consisted of 6 lectures. Each lecture varied in length and were no longer than an hour. After each lecture, there was a quiz of 8-10 questions and a final exam (consisting of questions from the previous tests). You have to complete the lecture and quiz before moving to the next lecture.

The professor who taught the course was very good. He mentioned things that I have overlooked while reading and brought out some really neat points. This course truly allowed me to see this amazing tale in a whole new light. Some things were so obvious, I don’t know how I ever missed the connection.

I had already done my yearly read of the book when I discovered this course, so it was fresh in my mind. Let me encourage you to take advantage of this if you are looking to get into the holiday spirit. It is easily something that you could do in a day or two. You can read more about it or enroll (and do it on your own time) by going to their website:

https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/christmas-carol

If you do enroll and finish the course, I would love to hear what you thought!