Jeffrey Alexander Martin

James Madison was a brilliant political mind. After one session of congress some friends encouraged him to write an anonymous pamphlet about the things under consideration, which he did. It's amazing to watch him think through the complex issues of his day. And there's one key paragraph. This is from 'Political Observations' by James Madison 20 April 1795. "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in th...

In a world where the guilty go free and the innocent are persecuted, Gotham needs Batman. Billionaires, presidents, princes, and prime ministers consider themselves above the law, and have proven that they are above the law. Apparently the law cannot protect against those who make and administer the laws. A world where the department of justice is more properly named the department of injustice. When the people responsible to carry out justice are themselves against justice, when they attack victims and protect the criminals, then there is no rule of law, only the rule of psychopaths and sociopaths. The only way out is for Batman to reduce the number of psychopaths and sociopaths. If only he had a list to work off of. Gotham is based on a real place, a corrupted New York City, and now that corruption has spread to encompass all of the United States, the United Kingdom, and more. Look at Batman's most famous villains. Do they remind of you real people that live in our society? The J...

As you're reading through these think about if these apply to us now, and if they apply 2,000 years ago. If they apply now and two millennia ago, I think they are universal principles. 'The Education of the Architect' in 'The Ten Books on Architecture' by Vitruvius 25 BC If you think about architecture in ancient Rome you realize that they must have known how to educate well, and organize masses of people. When I stood in the Colosseum I thought, "You could fix this up and use it again." There are ancient Roman aqueducts and baths that are still used now, 2,000 year later. In this book on architecture Vitruvius opens it by talking about education. The whole section is wonderful. Here are the first three sections: "The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory. Pract...

Buckle up. In this edition I cover a progressive educator criticizing progressive education, a school system founded on a new religion, a public school teacher turned homeschool advocate, a physicist selling computers as the answer, and creative schools from a small town in Italy. 'Experience and Education' by John Dewey 1938 Dewey was a popular philosopher and psychologist. He wrote a number of works on education. This is a short book that he wrote later in life and is better than his early books on education. Ideals often get corrected by reality over time. Dewey was the leader of progressive education. He makes good criticisms of traditional education. But, he also points out that progressive education was largely just a rejection of traditional education. They rejected everything, the good and the bad, and largely just ended up with a different type of bad education. I like a lot of what Dewey points out in this book. A lot of it seems like it should be obvious when it'...

At first these five works seem like they almost can't be compared. That they shouldn't be talked about at the same time. But, they fit together perfectly. 'Courage to Grow: How Acton Academy Turns Learning Upside Down' by Laura Sandefer 2017 Jeff and Laura Sandefer are a classic power couple. He has an MBA, founded a successful oil and gas company, founded an investment firm, and got involved with business education. She was successful in the insurance industry, then got an education degree, and taught fine arts. Then, they founded a private school and grew the organization to hundreds of locations in dozens of countries. It's a unique organization. Instead of teachers they have guides that allow the kids to do a lot of organization and leading in school, and guide the kids through questioning. They have a student contract that the kids commit to. They do some online academic work. They do a lot of projects that the students give exhibitions on to prove their learni...

There are two main steps to making things better: one is problem finding, two is problem solving. Each of these five works does both, but they find and solve very different problems.  'Black Excellence - The Case of Dunbar High School' by Thomas Sowell 1975 Sowell is wonderful. He's an economic historian, which is a great combination because he digs into the statistical data as well as the history. He's autobiography is a great book and shows that he worked in the real world before academia, and worked in government, which helped open his eyes to how that works so poorly. From high school dropout to leading American intellectual, he has a good story and good arguments. He's also a photographer, and was a US Marine. Interesting people are often complex. In this article Sowell points out that people commonly study failures in black education, and seemingly purposefully ignore the successes. This goes over an all-black high school that succeeded for a long time, from 1...