Jeffrey Alexander Martin

It would appear that large countries consume smaller countries, in the same way large fish consume smaller fish. However, many small countries continue to exist. Sometimes large countries break into smaller countries, conquered colonies and territories break away from empires, and sometimes a large country just can't conquer a smaller country. Not being able to be conquered largely comes down to two decisions. One, are the people patriotic and willing to fight the foreign power? Two, are the people armed? If the answer to both of these is yes, then it's extremely unlikely that even the strongest country can conquer the weakest country. Theoretically the stronger country could kill everyone in the smaller country, but it's difficult to garner the support of the people necessary to carry out a genocide like that. It's possible, just unlikely. The United States offers several examples. The US, the most powerful country in the world, one of two world super powers along with...

These five people were all deep into academia, education, and schools, and in different ways all came to very strong criticisms against a failing and broken system. I largely agree with all of them. 'Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling' by John Taylor Gatto John Tayler Gatto was a public school teacher for decades. He won both the New York City Teacher of the Year and New York State Teacher of the Year awards. Eventually he left public schools and wrote books on how schooling harms children. Two quotes from the book will help you see key insights: “Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your roadmap through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how...

In this article I include two short fictional works, one memoir and advice book, one letter, and one speech. The crazy thing is, each of them has excellent lessons for education, teaching, and learning. 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever' by Barbara Robinson This is a 1972 book that was made into a movie in 2024. In 2025 my mother saw it and highly recommended it. It didn't sound that good, but during the 2025 Christmas season I watched it a few times. Then, when my mother and I were driving across Michigan to the airport when I was leaving to Costa Rica we listened to the audiobook, and it was good too. The story is about a horrible family of kids that are bullies and force themselves into the Christmas pageant at a church. Being interested in the pageant, first for food, and then because they get to live out stories of other's lives, they're interested in learning about the Christmas story. They even go to a library and research. It's a good example of how schoo...

Leo Tolstoy is considered one of the greatest writers to ever live. In 1859 he started a free school that operated for just three years. It was unique and has inspired people to this day, over 150 years later. Why did he shut it down? By reading three of his letters, I have the answer. By 1859 Tolstoy was already a famous writer in Russia. He was a wealthy noble with peasants living on his lands. He was a decorated Russian artillery officer in the Crimean War. He started a free school for peasant children at his home, both called Yasnaya Polyana. He trained the students to be teachers because the teachers he brought to the school didn't work out well. It was just a small school with a dozen students. The students weren't required to do things, they were allowed to do things. He also had a sister and her kids and an aunt living with him. This is in Czarist Russia long before the Communist Revolution in 1917. As part of the school he also published a journal or magazine that incl...

The ideal learning partnership consists of three stakeholders: student, tutor, and parents. A few months ago I was at a football game in Oklahoma. One of the parents sitting behind us was talking about how his son, who was playing, wanted to go to college for engineering. But, he wasn't good at math and school, which probably won't work well for engineering school, but he does work well with his hands. So, the father thought it would be a good idea for him to go to trade school or do an apprenticeship. It sounded like they had some major disagreements about it, and the mother agreed with that. It's hard to say how it'll come out, but it's not unreasonable to think that it will go like many other people. He'll start college, switch majors a few times, then drop out with debt. Years from now he might think, "Dad might have had a point." Or, maybe he'll become a great engineer. Either way, the process of how they made the decision didn't go well. ...

If you were to decide to learn about education, teaching, and learning you would search and find books pertaining specifically to those subjects. If you were to read thousands of books on many subjects, you would find unique insights that a normal person wouldn't find in their normal search. That's why my list is a unique mix. 'Some short Notes Concerning the Education of a Prince' by King George III It makes sense to take a look at how the rich and powerful choose to educate their children. This is from the king that the American Founding Fathers fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was highly intelligent. He also went crazy. He lost the United States, but conquered Australia. I was amazed to find that the British put letters from past monarchs online. I read it years ago, and of course it is important if you want to rule to have a liberal education that includes languages and history. King George III also liked science, when in its modern form it was just beco...

Government schools have been successful at achieving their goals in many societies across large periods of time. The Soviet Union is an example. There was a weekly journal called 'Soviet Russia' published in New York City in the early 1900s by the Russian Soviet Government Bureau. Yes, the Soviet Union was allowed to publish propaganda openly in the United States. In volume 4, number 18, on April 30, 1921, there's an article by Nikolai Lenin. Yes, that's Vladimir Lenin, he changed his name a few times over his life. The title of the article is 'Political Education in Soviet Russia'. Here are four selections from that article: "In such a moment of struggle we must defend our Socialist work of construction and wage a conflict with this bourgeoisie, both in a military and—what is more important—in a spiritual sense, in the way of education." "Hundreds of thousands of teachers constitute an apparatus that must push our work forward. The fact that the ...

There are hundreds of good books and essays on education, teaching, and learning, going back almost 2,000 years. I keep a list for myself to reference back to. It's been growing. Here I'm going to start giving my opinions on some of them. 'Raise a Genius!' by Laszlo Polgar This book is amazing. Polgar and his wife were both teachers in Eastern Europe during the Soviet Union. Polgar had a theory that most kids could be trained to be a genius in most things if given the proper environment. Him and his wife married to do this experiment with their own kids. They had three daughters, all three of them became great at the board game of chess. One is considered the greatest woman ever. The daughters have written memoirs as well, I've read one, and the mother included a short comment in her husband's book. Essentially, you follow interest with heavy intensity, do it as a family unit, bring in outside tutors. Even though the focus was on chess, all three of the girls en...