Education, like nutrition, should be recognized as the exclusive domain of a child’s parents, within legal limits objectively defining child abuse and neglect.
CULTURE
A nation’s culture is the sum of the intellectual achievements of individual men, which their fellow-citizens have accepted in whole or in part, and which have influenced the nation’s way of life. Since a culture is a complex battleground of different ideas and influences, to speak of a ‘culture’ is to speak only of the dominant ideas, always allowing for the existence of dissenters and exceptions. — AYN RAND
Islamic States and Thought Crimes: The Thug’s Ideal
What deeper attack on civilization, freedom, the mind, and human life could be possible than to propose the establishment of thought crimes in an American university?
An Open Letter to America’s Students–Will “Atlas Shrugged” Change your Life Forever?
Some 95% of my students report that “Atlas Shrugged” is the best book they’ve ever read. No book that I’ve taught comes remotely close to fostering a more robust exchange of ideas in the classroom.
The New Rational Manager
In the 1960’s, Charles Kepner and Benjamin Tregoe translated a few key logical processes into simple, practical, teachable procedures. Since then, their methods have helped three generations of managers solve problems and make decisions at work. Their book, The...
Black Colleges
The Lincoln Review, a Washington-based black think tank, published an article titled “What Does the Future Hold for Historically Black Colleges?” in its September/October 2007 edition. It recalled the experiences of Bill Maxwell, a St. Petersburg Times...
The Meaning of Jihad
To counter such mystically motivated fanatics, we who wish to uphold reason, civilization, and individual rights must understand our own case thoroughly and oppose the forces of the dark ages with forthright conviction.
Yesterday’s Highlights: Stories From Home
We at VanDamme Academy love hearing stories about things the students do or say at home that reflects their VanDamme Academy education. I recently asked parents to share some stories from home. Here are a few highlights: Calvin (5): I was talking to Calvin about the...
Thank You
Most are thankful to God. I am thankful to man — specifically, to those individuals who (over the centuries) have created the countless things I need for survival and enjoyment.
After Ten Years, States Still Resist Assisted Suicide
Conservatives have no right to force such mindless, medieval misery upon doctors and patients who refuse to regard their precious lives as playthings of a cruel God.
The Influence of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged
So while Atlas Shrugged has provided millions with inspiration and with some level of appreciation for the virtues of capitalism and the evils of statism, it has not had nearly the influence it could have had, had its underlying ideas gained wider understanding.
Why Businessmen Love Atlas Shrugged
If you ask any hundred successful businessmen chosen at random to name the book that has most inspired them, you will undoubtedly hear one title repeated over and over: Atlas Shrugged–Ayn Rand’s epic novel, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month.
The First Day of School: VanDamme Academy Style
“We always understood why we were learning what we were learning.”
Ashland University Reenters the Dark Ages
Yesterday, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on Dr. John Lewis’ recent travails at Ashland University (subscription required). For those who are unaware, here is a brief recap: After initially denying Lewis tenure this spring because Lewis supports Ayn...
The Writing Process: One Step at a Time
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (or NAEP), the average high school student is an incompetent writer. To evaluate their writing ability, testers asked high school juniors to write a paragraph based on notes they were given about a haunted...
Dr. Jack Kevorkian and The Right to Assisted Suicide
If you have a duty to go on living, despite your better judgment, then your life does not belong to you, and you exist by permission, not by right.
The Failure of Field Trips, Part 2
In my recent article “ The Failure of Field Trips ,” I explained what is wrong with traditional school outings. The typical field trip is irrelevant to the students’ education, either because they have been unprepared to appreciate it by their...
How The New York Times Coordinates Coverage Between News and Editorial Departments
Almost all of the writers, reporters, and editors of the paper come from the same educational mold and see practically everything through a far-left prism, with the result that The Times’ reporting is thoroughly slanted to the left.
The Irony Behind The College Student Loan Scandal
It is ironic that in the present case, the victims of this anti-capitalistic attitude are colleges and universities. What is ironic is that they systematically instill such anti-capitalistic attitudes in practically every course they offer.
Crass and Class at George Mason University
The lecture by Dr. John Lewis last month on Islamic totalitarianism at George Mason University was one of the most surreal public experiences I have witnessed in all my years as an activist and advocate. It evidenced in no uncertain terms that rationality and common...
The Failure of Field Trips, Part 1
Many educators stress the importance of field trips–opportunities to get students out of their desks and away from their books, and to give them direct, vivid, sensory experience with the world around them. Reflecting on my own education, these excursions off...
The Dissolute Dogmatists
How do freewheeling Westerners morph into fanatical Islamists?
Cult or Religion?
One of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism.
Religion vs. Liberty
America’s war on terrorism is being undercut–by the administration’s efforts to inject religion into politics.
Grammar Made Fashionable: Phyllis Davenport’s “Rex Barks”
I began my career as a private teacher for a few families committed to providing their children with a real education. These parents had abandoned a fruitless search for a school in which their children would read the classics of literature, learn the story of...
Life in Junior High, Part 2
Last week, I contrasted the cliché junior high classroom–of raucous teenagers throwing spitballs, passing love notes, and giggling at lewd jokes–with a VanDamme Academy junior high classroom–of young adults in raptures over Cyrano de Bergerac. How we...
Life In Junior High, Part 1
When I tell people that I teach literature to junior high students, the response is nearly universal: an expression of profound sympathy. Teaching junior high is regarded as a martyr’s job, to be taken on only by those with such a selfless commitment to children...
New York Times Pushes the Doctrine of Class Warfare
When one reads The New York Times, one should know what one is getting. It is not unvarnished news, but the news as seen through the lens of a distinct philosophical and political doctrine, a doctrine that is hostile to the freedom, prosperity, and happiness of the individual, and thus to the foundations of the United States.
Writing and Understanding
Several weeks ago, in my article “Pattern Recognition vs. Real Understanding,” I stressed the crucial connection between writing and understanding: For the student to write explanations, in complete sentences, about every subject–whether history,...
New York Times Pushes the Green Party Line
Even though there may not be formal meetings, strategy sessions, and the like to coordinate its news reporting with its leftist editorial slant, that leftist slant nevertheless very definitely does permeate its reporting.
The Imperative of Lecturing
Every class in elementary and junior high school should be in a lecture format. The teacher must be an authority on the subject, he must grasp its basic purpose, he must carefully define the knowledge to be conveyed by reference to that purpose, and he must present...
How The West Could Lose
After defeating fascists and communists, can the West now defeat the Islamists?
The Religious Conservatives’ War on Birth Control
Virtue, according to Christianity, consists of sacrificing one’s desires and goals in the name of fulfilling one’s duties to God. Sex, on this premise, is at best a necessary evil–a sinful act, justifiable only by the duty to procreate.
Subscribe for free.
Latest pro-Capitalism goodness sent weekly to your email box.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.