Charlie Kirk revealed a fundamental problem in our modern education system, and Hillsdale College is working to combat it. Hillsdale College has launched a new feature to accompany our free online courses: curricular paths. We have begun to organize our more than 50 courses into structured paths that guide you to a more robust education. We currently offer a liberal arts path that reflects the core curriculum at the college and three paths in honor of Charlie Kirk. Charlie’s insight was that, while debate over education often focuses on technology, policy, institutions, or curriculum, the true problem is deeper. Too often, students don’t take responsibility for their own education. Charlie showed that learning depends on the student more than those formal structures. Contemporary American culture expects teachers and professors to do the work of education. We realize the student must show up and complete assignments, but we fail to cultivate a sense of wonder at the world and an understanding that it is our duty, as human beings with minds that are free, to exercise that freedom and learn. Schools, universities, teachers, and curricula are all important. They play crucial roles in most people’s education. But the greatest teacher in the world cannot learn for the student. It’s natural that we want to learn. Aristotle recognized that. All of us can find something we want to know more about. Sometimes that curiosity is directed towards frivolous ends, maybe just wondering what will happen on the next episode of our favorite show, but the desire to learn is there. It’s our duty to cultivate that desire towards things that contribute to genuine happiness. Charlie Kirk reminded us of that duty. He sought ways to learn even without attending college. His faith taught him that he owed a duty to himself and to God to make the most of his brief life and exercise the freedom of his mind. He did so by reading books and engaging in conversations. Although he did not attend Hillsdale College, he admired many of our free online courses, and he completed many in his pursuit of learning. At Hillsdale, we have organized the 16 courses that Charlie completed into “The Charlie Kirk Path.” It includes required courses on the Constitution, Genesis, Aristotle’s “Ethics,“ American citizenship, and Western philosophy, as well as optional courses on an array of political, economic, historical, and religious subjects. With TPUSA, we also structured two shorter paths around the things that mattered most to Charlie’s work: his faith and his love for America. As he worked through these courses, Charlie would often invite the professors onto his podcast to engage further with the ideas he was contemplating from the videos. And Charlie’s education rewarded him. He made enemies, but that is because he accomplished amazing things. He challenged others’ ideas and welcomed them to challenge his own, and in the conversations that followed, he often found friends. He used those friendships to start an organization that grew to national influence and that continues to have a real impact on political discourse even after he is gone. Thomas Jefferson claimed that the human mind is created free, and Socrates once called education the greatest human good. Charlie helps us make sense of these claims. The mind is free, and whether we attend formal institutions is far less important to our learning than whether we take responsibility for our own education. Charlie chose to educate himself. That’s the only way to learn. And from his education, he received even greater benefits than he could have achieved through his labor. Education is the greatest human good because it is within our abilities to learn, and learning prepares us to enjoy goods that are beyond our own power to achieve. It is a challenge to learn, it requires us to wonder and care enough to forgo mere amusements and pleasures, to set aside distractions and spend time in contemplation and reflection, and to communicate with others who will challenge and sharpen our ideas. Let us all learn from Charlie’s example. Let’s find in ourselves the desire to learn by cultivating a sense of wonder at the world around us. We will discover the freedom of our minds and the duty to learn that comes with it—a duty to ourselves, to our friends, to our nation, and to God. And along the way, we will find meaningful friendships, greater wisdom, deeper faith, and happiness. We invite you to start learning like Charlie at https://learnlikecharlie.hillsdale.edu/. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Learning From Charlie appeared first on The Daily Signal.