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The American Academy: The Opening Of The American Heart And Mind
Education Guide
By Lee K. Anthony, For The Bulletin
If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves ... we have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament. — From the US Dept. of Education Report: A Nation at Risk, 1983
In 1987, Allan Bloom, one of our country’s most distinguished political philosophers, wrote a New York Times bestselling book, The Closing of the American Mind. Mr. Bloom laments the surprising lack of intellectual curiosity in students entering the University of Chicago — or other top tier colleges. These students cannot learn because their minds have been “closed” after years of relentless immersion in political correctness and moral relativism; their jaded character and cynical habits are already set. Remediation is all that Mr. Bloom can prescribe, and the prognosis is bleak. The situation is worse than simply a waste of human capital, because these supposedly bright students will go out into the world and inflict their radical ideology on the rest of us. We cannot sit by and watch it happen. The opportunity to develop a student’s potential is lost before a college education has even started. These freshmen are virtually “dead on arrival.”
In Mark Steyn’s recent book, America Alone, he says a first priority is to convince Americans that our liberty and form of government are worth defending. There are dire consequences if our future leaders come from today’s public and secular school system, because these students are simply the younger version of Mr. Bloom’s University of Chicago freshmen. We must train our children with stories of the Founding Fathers and our nation’s rich history, starting in kindergarten. Students at The American Academy memorize the great patriotic documents in early grades; third and fourth graders memorize the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. Later in middle school, we can familiarize students with Madison’s Federalist papers, Pericles’ Funeral Oration, and tie ideas of American government to their roots in ancient Rome. A tradition at The American Academy is to re-enact scenes from the 1776 Constitutional Convention, using the original notes of the proceedings, with simple costumes and props to make things realistic.
The solution to the “closed” American mind is obvious: The power to mold the next generation of citizens lies in elementary and secondary education. Proper education must supplant exposure to anti-Western, anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian and anti-family teachings pervasive in today’s public and secular private schools. We have been too complacent in relinquishing parental control to the most powerful and most radical trade union in the world, the National Education Association (NEA, the teachers’ union). The radical Left NEA’s “to do” list reads like a nightmare to anyone who respects America’s legacy. For details about the NEA’s agenda, I refer you to the Eagle Forum, a watchdog group for the teachers’ union.
Private schools are not immune to the NEA’s influence, which extends far beyond the public school system into control of text book publication in all academic areas, and also determines the College Board testing process, which drives what U.S. students are taught. An amusing side note is that the Princeton, N.J.-based College Board contacted one of our students to ask permission to use to her award-winning creative writing essay in their national reading comprehension material.
Navigation of the “minefield” of politically correct teaching material requires experienced scholar-teachers, such as those we have at The American Academy. They select a curriculum with a strong intellectual and moral foundation that will awaken young sensibilities to noble ideals and honorable callings. After early training in the cadence and grandeur of the King James Bible, Latin, Greek and large doses of math, students are ready to study Madison, Shakespeare, Herodotus or Euclid in later grades. Unlike the brainwashed freshmen Mr. Bloom described, our students are well equipped to address the “the Big Questions” — i.e., what is the meaning of life? — when they enter college.
The American Academy students are some of the very few in the U.S.A. trained in this traditional, rigorous manner. They are equipped and motivated to contribute in their various callings. Leaders throughout the history of Western civilization have sought a classical education. “Climbing Parnassus,” as outlined in Tracy Lee Simmons’ fine book of the same name, was a metaphor for the difficult and refining struggle to be excellent; Latin, Greek and math were the foundations of a cultivated and precise mind. As Mr. Simmons explains, “‘Climbing Parnassus’ eventually became a code for the painfully glorious exertions of Latin and Greek ... and among those gifts most sought was the civilizing, cultivating boon of eloquence, of right and beautiful expression.” We wish to offer these educational opportunities to other motivated families in the years ahead through a series of model schools similar to The American Academy.
Another important consideration is this: Can our children be expected to serve two masters, i.e. pervasive indoctrination in postmodern relativism in the secular schools and a Judeo-Christian heritage necessary to continue our unique American heritage of liberty and representative republican democracy? Lincoln, quoting the Bible, said that a “house divided cannot stand.” There are serious consequences to our neglect of K-12 education, and I hope I have convinced you that we cannot leave that task to the state or to “values-neutral” secular schools.
Yes, your child can get into Harvard without going to The American Academy. But Harvard students have proven themselves to know less than The American Academy students in many areas.
As the recent national ISI report on civic literacy revealed, Harvard students are abysmally ignorant of even the basic facts of American civics, scoring failing grades both as incoming freshmen and as outgoing seniors.
Our school was cited favorably by Andrew Kern, president of CiRCE Institute, in the scholarly journal, The Intercollegiate Review, Spring 2008 issue (p 7), as one of the few schools in the country which teaches Latin and Greek to a mastery level. The American Academy was also praised at a recent lecture at Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI lecture at the Union League Club of Philadelphia, October 2008, Western Civilization: What are we Fightin’ For? ) as the type of education needed to renew Western Civilization.
Several of our students have been Intercollegiate Studies Institute Honors Fellows. One attended the University of Pennsylvania and is a counter-terrorism intelligence analyst in Washington, DC. Another of our graduates is going into her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a top épée fencer on the varsity fencing team, in her sixth year of Arabic, a classics minor, and is majoring in U.S. diplomatic history.
Yet another one of our graduates is presently attending Swarthmore College, studying Russian literature after a year on a Rotary scholarship to Siberia. Last year, she hosted an ISI speaker event with Wendy Shalitt on the topic of modesty. Campus radicals protested for a week that anyone dare speak about these traditional virtues. Our two most recent graduates last spring had top scores in their college tests, and are doing well in the prestigious Honors program at Hillsdale College, with scholarships. Both of these students intend to go to medical school.
In summary, The American Academy is a powerful antidote to the malaise in American education. We have a strong reputation for excellence. We specialize in accelerated learning. We have gifted students and average students who look gifted because they have been well trained in the classical method. We are a veritable stew of exciting ideas, and our outstanding scholar teachers are here to share their excitement about learning, as they also shape strong character and a moral foundation. Our future plans include a publishing venture for our curriculum materials. We hope to set standards in K-12 education to produce leaders who will transform our country in ways reminiscent of Washington, Lincoln and Reagan.
Unlike most Ivy League students, our students know that there IS an objective standard of excellence, and that they are heirs of a great tradition of Western Civilization, with its unique benefits of liberty based on a common understanding of morality. Our duty is to cherish and protect this legacy.
The American Academy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania. We gratefully accept donations to support the mission of the school, and more information can be found on our Web site: www.theamericanacademy.net.
Mission of The American Academy: To unite intellectual excellence and Christian service in the education of young men and women.
Motto: Fides Quaerens Intellectum, or Faith Seeking Understanding
In 1987, Allan Bloom, one of our country’s most distinguished political philosophers, wrote a New York Times bestselling book, The Closing of the American Mind. Mr. Bloom laments the surprising lack of intellectual curiosity in students entering the University of Chicago — or other top tier colleges. These students cannot learn because their minds have been “closed” after years of relentless immersion in political correctness and moral relativism; their jaded character and cynical habits are already set. Remediation is all that Mr. Bloom can prescribe, and the prognosis is bleak. The situation is worse than simply a waste of human capital, because these supposedly bright students will go out into the world and inflict their radical ideology on the rest of us. We cannot sit by and watch it happen. The opportunity to develop a student’s potential is lost before a college education has even started. These freshmen are virtually “dead on arrival.”
In Mark Steyn’s recent book, America Alone, he says a first priority is to convince Americans that our liberty and form of government are worth defending. There are dire consequences if our future leaders come from today’s public and secular school system, because these students are simply the younger version of Mr. Bloom’s University of Chicago freshmen. We must train our children with stories of the Founding Fathers and our nation’s rich history, starting in kindergarten. Students at The American Academy memorize the great patriotic documents in early grades; third and fourth graders memorize the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. Later in middle school, we can familiarize students with Madison’s Federalist papers, Pericles’ Funeral Oration, and tie ideas of American government to their roots in ancient Rome. A tradition at The American Academy is to re-enact scenes from the 1776 Constitutional Convention, using the original notes of the proceedings, with simple costumes and props to make things realistic.
The solution to the “closed” American mind is obvious: The power to mold the next generation of citizens lies in elementary and secondary education. Proper education must supplant exposure to anti-Western, anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian and anti-family teachings pervasive in today’s public and secular private schools. We have been too complacent in relinquishing parental control to the most powerful and most radical trade union in the world, the National Education Association (NEA, the teachers’ union). The radical Left NEA’s “to do” list reads like a nightmare to anyone who respects America’s legacy. For details about the NEA’s agenda, I refer you to the Eagle Forum, a watchdog group for the teachers’ union.
Private schools are not immune to the NEA’s influence, which extends far beyond the public school system into control of text book publication in all academic areas, and also determines the College Board testing process, which drives what U.S. students are taught. An amusing side note is that the Princeton, N.J.-based College Board contacted one of our students to ask permission to use to her award-winning creative writing essay in their national reading comprehension material.
Navigation of the “minefield” of politically correct teaching material requires experienced scholar-teachers, such as those we have at The American Academy. They select a curriculum with a strong intellectual and moral foundation that will awaken young sensibilities to noble ideals and honorable callings. After early training in the cadence and grandeur of the King James Bible, Latin, Greek and large doses of math, students are ready to study Madison, Shakespeare, Herodotus or Euclid in later grades. Unlike the brainwashed freshmen Mr. Bloom described, our students are well equipped to address the “the Big Questions” — i.e., what is the meaning of life? — when they enter college.
The American Academy students are some of the very few in the U.S.A. trained in this traditional, rigorous manner. They are equipped and motivated to contribute in their various callings. Leaders throughout the history of Western civilization have sought a classical education. “Climbing Parnassus,” as outlined in Tracy Lee Simmons’ fine book of the same name, was a metaphor for the difficult and refining struggle to be excellent; Latin, Greek and math were the foundations of a cultivated and precise mind. As Mr. Simmons explains, “‘Climbing Parnassus’ eventually became a code for the painfully glorious exertions of Latin and Greek ... and among those gifts most sought was the civilizing, cultivating boon of eloquence, of right and beautiful expression.” We wish to offer these educational opportunities to other motivated families in the years ahead through a series of model schools similar to The American Academy.
Another important consideration is this: Can our children be expected to serve two masters, i.e. pervasive indoctrination in postmodern relativism in the secular schools and a Judeo-Christian heritage necessary to continue our unique American heritage of liberty and representative republican democracy? Lincoln, quoting the Bible, said that a “house divided cannot stand.” There are serious consequences to our neglect of K-12 education, and I hope I have convinced you that we cannot leave that task to the state or to “values-neutral” secular schools.
Yes, your child can get into Harvard without going to The American Academy. But Harvard students have proven themselves to know less than The American Academy students in many areas.
As the recent national ISI report on civic literacy revealed, Harvard students are abysmally ignorant of even the basic facts of American civics, scoring failing grades both as incoming freshmen and as outgoing seniors.
Our school was cited favorably by Andrew Kern, president of CiRCE Institute, in the scholarly journal, The Intercollegiate Review, Spring 2008 issue (p 7), as one of the few schools in the country which teaches Latin and Greek to a mastery level. The American Academy was also praised at a recent lecture at Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI lecture at the Union League Club of Philadelphia, October 2008, Western Civilization: What are we Fightin’ For? ) as the type of education needed to renew Western Civilization.
Several of our students have been Intercollegiate Studies Institute Honors Fellows. One attended the University of Pennsylvania and is a counter-terrorism intelligence analyst in Washington, DC. Another of our graduates is going into her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a top épée fencer on the varsity fencing team, in her sixth year of Arabic, a classics minor, and is majoring in U.S. diplomatic history.
Yet another one of our graduates is presently attending Swarthmore College, studying Russian literature after a year on a Rotary scholarship to Siberia. Last year, she hosted an ISI speaker event with Wendy Shalitt on the topic of modesty. Campus radicals protested for a week that anyone dare speak about these traditional virtues. Our two most recent graduates last spring had top scores in their college tests, and are doing well in the prestigious Honors program at Hillsdale College, with scholarships. Both of these students intend to go to medical school.
In summary, The American Academy is a powerful antidote to the malaise in American education. We have a strong reputation for excellence. We specialize in accelerated learning. We have gifted students and average students who look gifted because they have been well trained in the classical method. We are a veritable stew of exciting ideas, and our outstanding scholar teachers are here to share their excitement about learning, as they also shape strong character and a moral foundation. Our future plans include a publishing venture for our curriculum materials. We hope to set standards in K-12 education to produce leaders who will transform our country in ways reminiscent of Washington, Lincoln and Reagan.
Unlike most Ivy League students, our students know that there IS an objective standard of excellence, and that they are heirs of a great tradition of Western Civilization, with its unique benefits of liberty based on a common understanding of morality. Our duty is to cherish and protect this legacy.
The American Academy is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania. We gratefully accept donations to support the mission of the school, and more information can be found on our Web site: www.theamericanacademy.net.
Mission of The American Academy: To unite intellectual excellence and Christian service in the education of young men and women.
Motto: Fides Quaerens Intellectum, or Faith Seeking Understanding
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PhilaDem wrote on Apr 18, 2009 3:47 PM: