The following is adapted from remarks delivered during a gala event held at Hillsdale College on October 9-10, 2013, to launch a six-year campaign to raise $470 million for capital and endowment—the Rebirth of Liberty and Learning Campaign.
There is a proper way to educate and there is a proper way to govern, and they are both known. Today we do these things in a different way, which presents a serious and perhaps fatal problem for our country. But repair is possible. Take education first. The word "education" comes from a Latin word meaning "to lead forth." And if you think about it, "forth" is a value-laden term. Which way is forth? The Bible tells us to "raise up a child in the way he should go." But which way should he go? How does one come to know the answer to that? After almost 14 years as a college president I'm an expert on young people between 18 and 22, and I can tell you that if you ask a young person today which way is the right way to go, more often than not he or she will answer: "It depends on which way you want to go." Young people today give that answer because they've been taught to give that answer. But it's the wrong answer, and the activity of getting from there to the right answer—the activity of coming to know which way is the right way—is education. Thus "to lead forth." | 
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