Author: FMPadmin6120

There has been no more important teacher in human history than Jesus of Nazareth. Western civilization – the civilization that eliminated slavery by demanding that all men are equally children of God, that spawned science, that championed production, that permitted market economies and social mobility, that improved the entire world – would simply not have existed without Jesus.

What I recommend, then, is to teach what Jesus actually taught, rather than what other people said about him. And that’s what I’ll detail for you below. Continue reading “Teaching Jesus”

The series on critical thinking that we ran from 2020 to 2021 is now available in book form. It’s called How To Think Clearly and comes with a complete lesson plan as well as teaching notes.

We planned on having this book to market long before now, but there were paper shortages and labor shortages. Nonetheless, we now have printed copies in hand, and if you use Priority shipping, you can get them in time for Christmas. 

So, here’s the link, and it will be available on Kindle shortly. (We can ship box quantities as well.)

Buy now at Amazon

This is an essential discussion for anyone raising children. Here, to begin it, is a passage from an early psychiatrist named Boris Sidis, from his Lecture On The Abuse Of The Fear Instinct In Early Education: Continue reading “The Lovely And The Unlovely”

Nearly twenty years ago I was asked to help create an independent justice system for a province of Costa Rica that hoped to become autonomous. And so I put together a plan, working at least a little with the modern pioneers in this field, Bruce Benson and Alvin Lowi.

The project never came to fruition (none of them from those days really did), but it allowed us to stretch our intellectual wings and to do serious work of a unique and otherwise unavailable type.

This is a paper I produced for a highly regarded economic association and delivered at their annual meeting.

* * * * * Continue reading “Justice & Protection in Limon”

This is a “Greek model story,” as we covered in The Art of Telling Bedtime Stories, Part 4. In it, the child being read to is the hero, conquering danger with innovative thinking. This is precisely the kind of self-image we want our children and grandchildren to carry.

Use people and animals from your child’s own life for this story, and personalize it in other ways if you can. Make it their story.

* * * * * Continue reading “Sammy And The Skunk”

I think those of you with a bit of Spanish will love this. I have no idea who wrote it, but I know it goes back to at least 1950. Please enjoy. 

Merry Christmas and Felliz Navidad! 

* * * * * Continue reading “‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, In Spanglish”

The well-meaning women and men of the West have been slapped with fear, almost daily, and for almost two years running. They know things have gone too far, but they don’t know how to get back to where they were. Those of us who’ve been less afraid haven’t done a great deal to fix their predicament, and sometimes we’ve made it worse. And so I’m dedicating this post to simple things we can do, to cut through the fear that has gripped our family and friends.

Let’s get right to it: Continue reading “7 Simple Things You Can Do, To Cut Through The Fear”

I just sat down at my computer and saw that a new fearstorm is upon us. I saw signs of it earlier in the week, and now it has arrived. And so, briefly, I’d like everyone to understand how these things operate. Continue reading “A Fearstorm Is Upon Us”

Lesson #12: The Greek Model

The classical civilization of the Greeks, while not the golden age some people think it was, nonetheless spawned important developments. One of those was the meaningful story. Continue reading “The Art of Telling Bedtime Stories, Part 4”

The events of the past two years have come in so fast and hot that I think most people haven’t yet digested them. Human psychology doesn’t incorporate new and difficult changes very well; it tends rather to pretend that everything will come back to normal… for sure… any minute now.

This gap between perception and acceptance makes us vulnerable. And so it’s massively in our interest to narrow it and close it. Very briefly, I’ll try to help that process along: Continue reading “The Illusion of Democracy”