Daniel Coupland, Ph.D.

During Christmas break of my junior year in college, I had a professional crisis. I was almost finished with my undergraduate experience, and I didn’t know what I was going to do for a living.

I was curious about a lot of things, and I could see myself doing any number of jobs. My father suggested that I take an Education class because he thought I would be a good teacher. I thought he was wrong, but I took the class anyway.

The course itself was dull, but the instructor required all the students spend ten hours observing in a real classroom. I began the observation hours still convinced that teaching was not for me, but by the end of the two days of observing, I was hooked. In fact, I was convinced that I would be a teacher for the rest of my life.

I’ve been teaching at Hillsdale since 2006, and I strive to communicate what it means to be genuinely human. I have the opportunity and freedom to do what all professors should do: teach. As a friend once told me, good teaching is the overflow of a full life. In my classes, I therefore try to fill my students’ lives with as much goodness, truth, and beauty as I can.

The undergraduate years are over in a flash, so in the Education program at Hillsdale we offer students the ability to spend four years studying the best of what has been thought, said, and written.

VIRTUE

VIRTUE is the flagship publication of the Great Hearts Institute. It shares outstanding scholarship and first-hand stories from leaders, teachers, and students of classical education—all to inspire the continued pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Subscribing to VIRTUE’s mailing list is absolutely free.

VIRTUE Magaizine Issue 15

Sign up today for your copy and join 35,000+ teachers, leaders, and friends of K-12 Classical education.