Our American Idea programs give teachers the opportunity, through a transforming encounter with the great books, to think more deeply about the subjects they teach and the relation of those subjects to the whole of knowledge and to the formation of character. Our interdisciplinary approach to the study of economics, government, history, and literature reflects the classical understanding of man’s nature as an economic, social, and spiritual creature. Self-knowledge and self-discipline, learning and the cultivation of virtue, have for all of the 2800 years of the Great Conversation been understood in the Western World as the keys to human flourishing and happiness.
Teachers will be prepared to bring their students into the Great Conversation, to inspire them with their experience of the true, the good, and the beautiful, and cultivate in them the virtues of courage, temperance, wisdom, and justice. Only thus are people empowered as free and responsible persons, able to govern themselves in the light of enduring moral truths. Teachers will have the understanding and appreciation essay writer of the principles and history they need to pass on the torch of liberty.