Principles in Practice: The Blog of the Objective Standard

Monday, August 18, 2008

Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights to Open in Washington, D.C.

Posted by ARI Media at 8:22 PM

Irvine, CA—The Ayn Rand Institute is preparing to launch its new public policy and media center, the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, which will open later this year in Washington, D.C. The Center's Web site has already been launched, and can be visited at http://www.aynrandcenter.org/.

The Ayn Rand Center is named after author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982), who is best known for her novels “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” and for her original philosophy Objectivism.

According to Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, "The Ayn Rand Center's mission is to advance individual rights—the rights of each person to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness—as the moral basis for a fully free, laissez-faire capitalist society."

Toward this end, the Ayn Rand Center will promote the philosophical case for individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism to the public policy and business communities, the media, the general public, and elected officials and their staffs.

Among its various activities, the Ayn Rand Center will sponsor writing and research; create audio and video commentaries; provide experts to discuss current issues in the media; host public events, talks, lectures, forums, panel discussions, and debates; offer programs to businessmen; reach out to policymakers; and assist victims of governmental abuse in their efforts to defend themselves on moral grounds. The Ayn Rand Center will also produce articles, op-eds, press releases and letters to the editor, all of which were formerly produced by the Ayn Rand Institute.

"We are confident," said Dr. Brook, "that the Ayn Rand Center will be instrumental in establishing a future society in which each individual is left free to think and to act on his own best judgment, in which production and profit are seen as virtuous, and in which government is strictly limited to a single function: protecting the legitimate rights of its citizens."

### ### ###

Ayn Rand Institute experts are available for interviews on this topic.

Contact: Larry Benson
E-mail: media@aynrand.org
Phone: (949) 222-6550, ext. 213

For more information on Objectivism's unique point of view, go to ARI's Web site. Founded in 1985, the Ayn Rand Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead."

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

$43,000 to Winners of 'The Fountainhead' Essay Contest

Posted by ARI Media at 10:19 PM

Irvine, CA—High school senior Ryan Holley, from Burlington, IA, is the winner of the Ayn Rand Institute's annual "Fountainhead" essay contest, for which he received a prize of $10,000.

Open to high school juniors and seniors, the "Fountainhead" essay contest requires contestants to write on one of several topics dealing with the characters and themes in the novel. The contest is designed to promote critical thinking and writing skills. Essays are judged on both style and content.

The following students have won this year's second and third prizes:

Second-Prize Winners ($2,000):

  • Shea Levy, 12th Grade, New York, NY
  • Kristen Liu, 12th Grade, Warrensburg, MO
  • Sarah Magill, 12th Grade, Aravada, CO
  • Matthew Noakes, 11th Grade, Modesto, CA
  • Stasey Vishnevetsky, 12th Grade, New Haven, CT

Third-Prize Winners ($1,000):

  • Michael Bruner, 12th Grade, Ames, IA
  • Nathan Doan, 12th Grade, Elizabethtown, PA
  • Michael Harris, 11th Grade, Burbank, CA
  • Yameen Huq, 12th Grade, Cumming, GA
  • Jessica Hwang, 11th Grade, Columbia, MO
  • David Kurz, 12th Grade, Smithsburg, MD
  • Jade Lawrence, 12th Grade, Fallbrook, CA
  • Molly Ma, 11th Grade, Richmond, VA
  • Madeline Magnuson, 11th Grade, Idaho Falls, ID
  • Raphael Pond, 12th Grade, Westminster, MD

In addition to the $30,000 awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners, other finalists and semifinalists received a total of $13,000.

=======

First published in 1943, "The Fountainhead" offers the vision of a totally independent man, architect Howard Roark, who stands against society's conventions.

Since 1985 a total of more than 190,000 high school students from around the world have entered ARI essay contests. This year, more than 5,000 students submitted their essays on "The Fountainhead."

Each year ARI awards more than $57,000 in prizes to high school students and has given away more than a half a million dollars to contest winners during the past 23 years.

Information about next year's competition can be found at http://aynrand.org/contests.

Media inquiries: media@aynrand.org 949-222-6550, ext 213

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Institute Announces Two New Web Sites

Posted by ARI Media at 6:58 AM

The Ayn Rand Institute is pleased to announce the complete redesign of its WEBSITE. The site’s new look reflects a reorganization designed to increase ease of navigation. The site has also been supplemented with many new pages of written, audio and video content.  

ARI also announces the simultaneous launch of a NEW WEBSITE, dedicated to the work of its new public policy and media center. The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, which opens later this year in Washington, D.C., will promote the philosophical case for individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism to the public policy and business communities, the media, the general public and elected officials and their staffs. The Ayn Rand Center’s Web site features topical categories that will make it easier than ever to locate relevant ARI commentaries and materials by Ayn Rand and other authors. And by clicking on a “Participate” button, users can find information on how to support ARI’s activities through personal activism. 

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Announcing AtlasShrugged.com

Posted by ARI Media at 11:09 PM

The Ayn Rand Institute is very pleased to announce AtlasShrugged.com, a major new Web site dedicated to Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's great novel about the mysterious disappearance of the world's greatest innovators and industrialists.

AtlasShrugged.com has been created to be the Web's most comprehensive and insightful companion site to the novel. For new readers, it offers an introduction to the book and its themes; and for those already familiar with Atlas Shrugged, the site offers an unprecedented wealth of analysis and commentary to help them understand the book better, along with background information about Ayn Rand and her life.

Now in print for more than fifty years, Atlas Shrugged today sells well over 125,000 copies each year, even more than it sold at the peak of its initial publication run when it was a best-seller. More and more people are reporting the book's profound influence on their lives. Visit atlasshrugged.com to see why!

Browse AtlasShrugged.com.

Copyright © 2008 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Friday, December 21, 2007

Winter Issue of The Objective Standard

Posted by Craig Biddle at 7:18 PM

The print edition of the Winter issue of TOS has been mailed, and the online version has been posted to our website. The contents of the Winter issue are:

From the Editor

Letters and Replies

Moral Health Care vs. “Universal Health Care”
by Lin Zinser and Paul Hsieh

Instrumentalism and the Disintegration of American Tort Law
by David Littel

“Gifts from Heaven”: The Meaning of the American Victory over Japan, 1945
by John David Lewis

Although the Fall 2007 issue has sold out, other back issues are still available and can be ordered from our back issues page. Also, just in time for Christmas giving, we’ve reduced the price of the Standard-Bearer subscription by 15%—a package of five print-edition gift subscriptions is now only $250. That’s a bargain on the gift of objectivity for five good friends.

Merry Christmas!

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Friday, December 07, 2007

The Forthcoming Issue of TOS

Posted by Craig Biddle at 3:24 PM

Dear Subscribers and Friends of The Objective Standard,

The print edition of the Winter issue is at press and will be mailed shortly; the online version will be accessible to subscribers beginning December 20. For promotional purposes, we are making Lin Zinser and Paul Hsieh’s “Moral Health Care vs. ‘Universal Health Care’” available early and to all.

The contents of the Winter issue are:

From the Editor

Letters and Replies

Moral Health Care vs. “Universal Health Care”
by Lin Zinser and Paul Hsieh

Instrumentalism and the Disintegration of American Tort Law
by David Littel

“Gifts from Heaven”: The Meaning of the American Victory over Japan, 1945
by John David Lewis

Here’s a thought: Your Christmas shopping could be done in minutes—and it could change a worldview for life. A subscription to The Objective Standard is the perfect gift for your active-minded friends and relatives. The journal presupposes no specialized knowledge and will be appreciated by anyone with an interest in cultural or political issues. While supplies last, we can even provide recipients with the complete set of back issues (some of which will soon be sold out).

Enjoy the Winter issue and the holidays, and please continue spreading the word about the journal for people of reason.

Yours,

Craig Biddle, Editor
The Objective Standard

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Justice on the Web

Posted by Craig Biddle at 3:16 PM

Gus Van Horn, one of the best bloggers on the Web, is leading in the final polling of the 2007 Weblog Awards in the “Best of the Top 6751–8750 Blogs” category. Gus deserves this and much more, so vote, vote, vote this year (you can vote every 24 hours), and let’s see if we can ratchet up the justice next year. The polls close on November 8, so vote now.

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Friday, October 26, 2007

The Ayn Rand Lexicon: now available free on the Web!

Posted by ARI Media at 4:39 PM

Irvine, CA—Through a special arrangement with the publisher, the editor and the Estate of Ayn Rand, ARI has received exclusive permission to present The Ayn Rand Lexicon—now available in its entirety, free of charge, to Web visitors. Edited by Harry Binswanger, and with an introduction by Leonard Peikoff, this important book presents all of the key ideas of Ayn Rand's philosophy, in an encyclopedic reference of stunning breadth and depth.

From the back cover:

A prolific writer, best-selling novelist, and world-renowned philosopher, Ayn Rand defined a full system of thought—from epistemology to aesthetics. Her writing is so extensive and the range of issues she covers so enormous that those interested in finding her discussions of a given topic may have to search through many sources to locate the relevant passage.

The Ayn Rand Lexicon brings together for the first time all the key ideas of her philosophy of Objectivism, organized alphabetically by topic.

Through excerpts culled from Ayn Rand's many articles, lectures, and books, this work presents the Objectivist view on some 400 topics in philosophy, politics, art, economics, and psychology. The Lexicon thus serves as a mini-encyclopedia of Objectivism, complete with a conceptual index and extensive cross-references.

The Lexicon is both an intriguing introduction for the newcomer and a comprehensive sourcebook for readers already familiar with Objectivist ideas. Begun under Ayn Rand's personal supervision, this unique volume is an invaluable guide to her philosophy of reason, self-interest, and laissez-faire capitalism—the philosophy so brilliantly dramatized in her novels The Fountainhead, We the Living, and Atlas Shrugged.

Browse The Ayn Rand Lexicon.

Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Monday, October 01, 2007

Ayn Rand's Legacy of Reason and Freedom

Posted by ARI Media at 2:30 PM

Irvine, CA—The 50th anniversary of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged on October 10 is an occasion to celebrate her legacy of defending reason and freedom, according to Michael S. Berliner, former executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Although she was born and raised in Russia, she became a truly American writer and philosopher. Her philosophy of reason and individual liberty is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the mysticism and tyranny that permeated her country of birth.

In 1926 she managed to escape the oppression of the USSR. Inspired by the skyscrapers in American films and taking the United States as her symbol of civilization, she came to America that year to stay. Sales of her first film scenario, play and novel in the 1930s launched her career. Her first best-seller, The Fountainhead, was published in 1943 and has become an American classic.

In 1957, her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged was published. In it she dramatized her philosophy, soon to be named "Objectivism." Her philosophy of reason, egoism and individual rights has changed many people’s lives: a survey by the Library of Congress placed Atlas Shrugged as second only to the Bible as the most influential book in readers’ lives.

Ayn Rand was unique. Writing best-selling novels with inspiring characters and intriguing plots, or creating a new philosophic system would justify anyone's fame. Ayn Rand did both. With virtues that matched the individualistic heroes of her novels, she emerged as a thinker who did not fall into any of the traditional categories.  She was not a conservative, a liberal, an anarchist or a libertarian.  Politically, she was a radical for capitalism; in fundamental philosophy, she was a champion of reason, selfishness and the individual's happiness on earth.

Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Friday, September 21, 2007

Fall Issue of TOS Now Online

Posted by Craig Biddle at 11:10 AM

The online version of the Fall issue has been posted to our website.

In connection with all the press surrounding the fiftieth anniversary of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged—from the New York Times article “Ayn Rand's Literature of Capitalism,” to the Los Angeles Times piece “Ayn Rand's Epic Storytelling,” to Lionsgate’s selection of a director for the Atlas Shrugged movie—it is my pleasure to present Andrew Bernstein’s essay “Transfiguring the Novel: The Literary Revolution in Atlas Shrugged.” Bernstein examines Rand’s dramatization of the novel’s plot-theme, her use of literary techniques, and the nature and significance of key figures in the story, showing how Rand employed such elements to tap the full potential of this supremely conceptual art form, and shedding new light on Rand’s literary genius.

Also in this issue are “The Morality of Moneylending: A Short History” by Yaron Brook (which is accessible to all for free) and “How to Analyze and Appreciate Paintings” by Dianne Durante (which is accompanied by fifteen color images of the paintings discussed).

If you’ve not yet subscribed to TOS, why not do so today? An online subscription is only $49 per year—about 13 cents per day. Click here to subscribe.

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Exploit the Earth or Die

Posted by Craig Biddle at 1:59 PM

Exploit the Earth or die. It’s not a threat. It’s a fact. Either man takes the Earth’s raw materials—such as trees, petroleum, aluminum, and atoms—and transforms them into the requirements of his life, or he dies. To live, man must produce the goods on which his life depends; he must produce homes, automobiles, computers, electricity, and the like; he must seize nature and use it to his advantage. There is no escaping this fact. Even the allegedly “noble” savage must pick or perish. Indeed, even if a person produces nothing, insofar as he remains alive he indirectly exploits the Earth by parasitically surviving off the exploitative efforts of others.

The fact annoys some people. But it shouldn’t: Hence our “Exploit the Earth or Die” campaign.

Place an EED banner on your blog or website; wear an EED T-shirt; drink from an EED mug. The good guys will smile. The bad guys will snarl. And the battle for civilization and against “environmentalism” will be brought to the fundamental alternative whereupon the matter ultimately must be decided: life or death.

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Wednesday, August 01, 2007

$31,000 to Winners of 'Fountainhead' Essay Contest

Posted by ARI Media at 6:10 PM

Irvine, CA—High school senior Rituparna Basu, from Landsdale, PA, is the winner of the Ayn Rand Institute's annual "Fountainhead" essay contest, for which she received a prize of $10,000.

Open to high school juniors and seniors, the "Fountainhead" essay contest requires contestants to write on one of several topics dealing with the characters and themes in the novel. The contest is designed to promote critical thinking and writing skills. Essays are judged on both style and content.

The following students have won this year's second and third prizes:

Second-Prize Winners ($2,000):

Edward Larkin, 12th Grade, Lansing Catholic High School, Lansing, MI
Madison Fitzpatrick, 12th Grade, North Springs High School, Atlanta, GA
Caroline Gorman, 12th Grade, Coronado High School, El Paso, TX
Trenton Morrow, 12th Grade, Parkview Magnet High School, Little Rock, AR
Austin Case, 12th Grade, Eastern Regional High School, Voorhees, NJ

Third-Prize Winners ($1,000):

Matthew Daley, 12th Grade, Georgetown High School, Georgetown, TX
Hannah Thurman, 12th Grade, William G. Enloe High School, Raleigh, NC
Michelle Alaya, 12th Grade, Sam Rayburn High School, Pasadena, TX
Jennifer Hall, 11th Grade, Santiago High School, Corona, CA
Jason Merritt, 12th Grade, Pine View School, Osprey, FL
Stephen Miller, 12th Grade, Escondido Charter High School, Escondido, CA
Nayantara Bhushsan, 11th Grade, La Reina High School, Thousand Oaks, CA
Ming Tseng, 12th Grade, Hunter College High School, New York, NY
Preston Montano, 12th Grade, Greeley West High School, Greeley, CO
Frances Mallari, 12th Grade, Holy Spirit High School, Abescon, NJ
Douglas Laskowske, 12th Grade, Mindanao International Christian Academy, Philippines

===

First published in 1943, "The Fountainhead" offers the vision of a totally independent man, architect Howard Roark, who stands against society's conventions.

Since 1985 a total of more than 140,000 high school students from around the world have entered ARI essay contests. This year, more than 7,000 students submitted their essays on "The Fountainhead."

Each year ARI awards more than $57,000 in prizes and has given away more than a half a million dollars to contest winners during the past 20 years.

Information about next year's competition can be found at http://aynrand.org/contests

Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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$6,500 to Winners of 'Anthem' Essay Contest

Posted by ARI Media at 6:07 PM

Irvine, CA—High school freshman, Denise Orthner, from Hammonton, NJ, is the winner of the Ayn Rand Institute's 12th annual "Anthem" essay contest, for which she received a prize of $2,000.

Open to high school freshmen and sophomores, the "Anthem" essay contest requires contestants to write on one of several topics dealing with the characters and themes in the novel. The contest is designed to promote critical thinking and writing skills. Essays are judged on both style and content.

The following students have won this year's second and third prizes:

Second-Prize Winners ($500):

Annemarie Ryu, 10th Grade, Mayo High School, Rochester, MN
Harrison Falk, 9th Grade, Duluth High School, Duluth, GA
Sophie Arlow, 10th Grade, The Overlake School, Redmond, WA
Megan Arkenberg, 10th Grade, Germantown High School, Germantown, WI
Nick Kowalczyk, 10th Grade, Crown Point High School, Crown Point, IN

Third-Prize Winners ($200):
 
Angela Fu, 10th Grade, Irvine High School, Irvine, CA
Benjamin Dong, 10th Grade, Irvine High School, Irvine, CA
Renee Bruner, 10th Grade, Cypress Creek High School, Houston, TX
Elisabeth Burns, 10th Grade, Dobyns-Bennett High School, Kingsport, TN
Stephanie Gonzalez, 10th Grade, Douglas MacArthur High School, San Antonio, TX
Victor Bartash, 10th Grade, Wall High School, Wall, NJ
Stephanie Aldrich, 10th Grade, Worcester Academy, Worcester, MA
William McChesney, 10th Grade, Paul M. Dorman High School, Roebuck, SC
Angela Li, 9th Grade, Cypress Falls High School, Houston, TX
Kelsey Lay, 10th Grade, Hamilton High School, Hamilton, IL

===

First published in 1938, "Anthem" depicts a collectivist dictatorship in a future in which the word "I" has vanished, and how a lone dissident discovers the lost word's spiritual meaning.

Since 1985 a total of more than 140,000 high school students from around the world have entered ARI essay contests. This year, more than 14,000 students submitted their essays to the "Anthem" contest.

Information about next year's competition can be found at http://aynrand.org/contests/

Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Sunday, July 22, 2007

'No Substitute for Victory' now in Hebrew

Posted by John David Lewis at 2:31 PM

I am proud to note that my article, "No Substitute for Victory: The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism," has been transmitted into Hebrew. It appears in Nativ: A Journal of Politics and the Arts, vol. 20, n. 3.116 (May - June 2007). Nativ is published by the Ariel Center for Policy Research. From its website: "The Ariel Center for Policy Research (ACPR) is devoted to incisive research and discussion of political and strategic issues concerning Israel and the Jewish people."

The article is published by permission of The Objective Standard, from its 1.4, Winter, 2006-2007, pp. 39-63. This is the English abstract, as it appears in Nativ:

No Substitute for Victory: The Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism

In the face of rising threats to their freedom and rights, Americans today are uncertain about what a proper foreign policy should be. This uncertainty arises from the philosophical influences of pragmatism and altruism, which have misguided American leaders for 50 years, and have made it difficult for Americans to evaluate their leaders and to evaluate their actions. As a result, Americans have failed to forthrightly confront rising threats, and have not properly supported allies – in particular, Israel. We have, as a result, emboldened and empowered the worst threat to the West in centuries.

This article uses the historical example of American policy towards Shintoism in post-1945 Japan, in order to show that a proper policy today would first identify Islamic Totalitarianism as the political threat facing the West, and would then direct American resources towards ending the political imposition of Islamic Law, beginning with the Islamic State of Iran. By identifying the advocates of political Islam – those who would impose Islamic Law by force – as the true enemy, Americans could destroy its state manifestation wherever it appears, and then offer an intellectual alternative to jihad. This is the only way to end the threat posed by Islamic Totalitarianism, and to re-establish a proper basis for freedom across the globe.

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Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Rushdie Fatwa and 'Religion vs. Free Speech'

Posted by Craig Biddle at 12:30 AM

"Cut off the head of Salman Rushdie!" chanted a crowd of Islamists in Pakistan yesterday as calls to murder the “blasphemer” were renewed following his knighthood in Britain.

Such barbarism is to be expected from religionists—not just from Muslims, but from any religionists who are neither restrained by a rights-respecting constitution (as they are to some extent in America) nor terrified by a demonstration of the superiority of rational man over their fictional God.

Both the Old and the New Testaments call explicitly for the slaughter of those who blaspheme, but in America Jews and Christians are constitutionally forbidden to obey their holy books in full, so they refrain, and we can (for now) say what we want about their God who is not. (Thank the Founders for what’s left of the Constitution.)

Last year, in the wake of the Cartoon Jihad, I wrote an article for TOS titled “Religion vs. Free Speech,” and given the relevance of the essay to the unfortunately refreshed fatwa on Rushdie, I’ve decided to make it accessible to all. Here’s the link.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Ayn Rand Institute Offers Educational Program for the Study of Rand's Philosophy

Posted by ARI Media at 7:35 PM

Irvine, California (June 14, 2007)—Fifty years after the publication of her magnum opus, Atlas Shrugged, interest in Ayn Rand has never been greater. For those who want to study her ideas in depth, the Ayn Rand Institute's educational program, the Objectivist Academic Center, offers systematic instruction in Rand's philosophy, Objectivism.

More than one hundred students currently participate in the OAC's graduate and undergraduate programs, which for years have been offered as a supplement to a standard college education. The undergraduate program helps students develop a basic understanding of philosophy, of Objectivism as a philosophical system, and of the art of clear, objective thinking and writing. The focus of the graduate program is on mastering Objectivism, with special attention paid to proper philosophical methodology.

Students from all over the world attend classes online and via teleconference. Local students also have the option of attending classes at ARI's headquarters in Irvine, California. Select courses are open to auditors.

As a benefit to students who would like to receive college credit for their OAC coursework, ARI has partnered with Chapman University to offer two OAC courses, "Introduction to Philosophy" and "Introduction to Writing," through Chapman's distance learning program. Students are able to take the classes for credit, transfer the credits to their own university, and apply them toward their college degree.

Most full-time students receive tuition waivers, as well as other generous scholarships to help defray the costs of participating in the OAC. Additionally, ARI offers a wide array of support for OAC students, including grants, scholarships, and mentoring.

The application deadline for the 2007-08 academic year is July 30.

For more information on this program, please visit the Objectivist Academic Center website at http://www.aynrand.org/site/R?i=KIjNTULFfDcOZ9FS_4B7Hw.. or contact:

Debi Ghate
Vice President, Academic Programs
Ayn Rand Institute
(949) 222-6550, ext 206
dghate@aynrand.org

Copyright © 2007 Ayn Rand® Institute. All rights reserved.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The False Promise of Classical Education

Posted by Craig Biddle at 11:24 PM

The print edition of the Summer issue of TOS is at press and will be mailed shortly; the online version will be accessible to subscribers on June 20. For promotional purposes, we are making Lisa VanDamme’s “The False Promise of Classical Education” available early and to all. Here are the first few paragraphs of Ms. VanDamme’s essay:

In E. D. Hirsch’s best-selling book Cultural Literacy, he cites a Washington Post article titled “The Cheerful Ignorance of the Young in L.A.” in which the author says:

I have not yet found one single student in Los Angeles, in either college or high school, who could tell me the years when WWII was fought. . . . Nor have I found one who knew when the American Civil War was fought. . . .

Only two could even approximately identify Thomas Jefferson. Only one could place the date of the Declaration of Independence. None could name even one of the first ten amendments to the Constitution or connect them with the Bill of Rights. . . .1

A typical study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) concludes that the average eleventh-grade 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 house. The performance of half the students was judged to be either “unsatisfactory” or “minimal.” The following is a “minimal” response: “The house with no windows. This is a house with dead-end hallways, 36 rooms and stairs leading to the cieling [sic]. Doorways go nowhere and all this to confuse ghosts.”2 That is the student’s complete, word-for-word response—and represents the performance of nearly half of all eleventh graders. Most of the other half were evaluated as writing “adequate” paragraphs. Just 2 percent wrote something that was judged to be “elaborate,” a step up from “adequate.”

In Dumbing Down Our Kids, Charles Sykes tells a chilling story about a straight-A student in the eighth grade named Andrea, who was very eager to learn science. Unfortunately for Andrea, her school, like most today, stressed the importance of “creativity” over “dreary” facts, and of “hands-on,” “active” learning over “dull,” didactic instruction. This bright young girl with a thirst for scientific knowledge spent her time in science class picking up cereal with a tongue depressor (to simulate the way birds feed), hunting for paper moths on a wall, and drawing pictures of scientists. When Andrea wrote a letter complaining that she had gotten nothing out of the class, she was expelled for being rude and disrespectful.3

You have probably read stories like these and been horrified both by how shamefully ignorant, inarticulate, and illiterate many American students are, and, even worse, by what schools do to students like Andrea. I wish I could dismiss such stories as rare incidents circulated among cynical critics of American schools to give poignancy to their arguments. Unfortunately, my experience interviewing and teaching students at my school has shown me otherwise.

Some time ago, a woman brought her teenage daughter to visit VanDamme Academy. In an effort to get to know more about this girl and her educational history, I asked her a few questions about her current school. At one point, I asked what she was studying in history class. She looked at me with an expression of utter bafflement and said nothing. I realized my mistake and promptly changed the question to, “What are you studying in social studies?” Her puzzlement briefly dissipated—she now understood the question—but it returned as soon as she attempted an answer. After a little thought, she looked at me, shrugged her shoulders dismissively, and said, “I don’t know.” I realized that my second question was as unanswerable as my first. To state what she was studying would presuppose some connection, some integrating theme among the stories, newspaper articles, and papier-mâché projects that made up her social studies class.

One of my best, most dedicated, and intelligent students in recent years transferred to VanDamme Academy from an Orange County public school in seventh grade. In his first year at my school he studied ancient history—a subject that, I later discovered, he had also studied in sixth grade at his previous school. His mother told me that she once asked him, “Daniel, aren’t you bored repeating the same material?” Apparently he simply chuckled and said, “Mom. Everything meaningful we learned last year in my social studies class?—here we covered that the first day.”

Literature classes—or rather, the literature portion of “English” classes, which cram in literature, writing, spelling, vocabulary, and sometimes grammar—are no better. I am the junior high literature teacher at VanDamme Academy, and I often begin the year with a discussion of the value of studying literature. I intend to remind my students what they stand to gain from reading, by drawing upon novels and plays they had read in my class in seventh grade, such as Hugo’s Ninety-Three, Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo, Rattigan’s The Browning Version, and Corneille’s Cinna. I want to remind them that a character can stand in your mind as a powerful embodiment of certain traits, that the plot of a great novel can be gripping and emotionally stirring, and that a classic work of literature can capture a highly complex and abstract theme in a compelling, concrete form. One year, my class included a new student who had just completed seventh grade at St. Margaret’s, arguably the most prestigious private school in Orange County. So that I could include this new student in the discussion, I asked her mother what she had read the previous year. Her mother informed me that her daughter’s class had done a six-month study of A Walk to Remember, which is described by Amazon.com as a “boy-makes-good tearjerker” and which was recently made into a movie starring teen pop star Mandy Moore.

One of my most memorable experiences with a new transfer student came several years ago, when I taught my class the poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats, the poem with the immortal line “Beauty is truth, truth beauty—That is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” In an effort to understand the poem’s theme, we defined unfamiliar words and discussed the poem line by line and stanza by stanza, rewriting each section in plain prose. I explained to the students that I believed the theme of the poem to concern the timelessness of art and its consequent power to inspire future generations. I showed them how I inferred this theme from each line of the poem, stressing the connection between them. I later asked my students to write an essay explaining the theme of the poem. One student, who had recently come from another school, wrote an essay that began with a line I will never forget: “The theme of this poem is that all art is sacred, whether it is a realistic painting or a smudge on a canvas.” This moment, to me, summed up an important characteristic of American education: Cultural bromides had come to replace thought. The student was not troubled by the fact that this bromide bore no relation to the poem, because, like a smudge on a canvas, she regarded her opinion as sacred. I looked at her essay, handed it back to her, and said, “Could you please go find some evidence from the poem to support this theme?” Needless to say, she could not.

What has brought education to this state of disintegration, superficiality, and mindlessness? Bad philosophy. The educational philosophy that has most influenced modern education is the school known as “progressive education.” The leading theorist of “progressive” education was 20th-century philosopher John Dewey, but the intellectual foundations of the movement lie in the writings of 18th-century philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant.

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