Spring enrollment is open · See the catalog
Selections, read closely
A student studying Smith reads Smith. Books I and IV in substantial selection, plus the passages from Moral Sentiments people forget exist.
New this term. Reviews from students and parents appear here once families have taken it.
Everyone quotes the invisible hand; almost nobody has read the paragraph it appears in. This seminar fixes that, and pairs the economics with the moral philosophy Smith thought was inseparable from it.
This course accumulates. The class reads the same pages at the same pace and each meeting picks up the argument where the last one left it, so joining halfway means joining an argument already in progress.
Because there is a whole body of work at the end of it, this one is graded (letter) and can be carried to a transcript. Enroll before the second meeting.
Weeks 1–4
Division of labor, value, wages, and the pin factory in its own context.
Weeks 5–8
The butcher and brewer passage, and the moral framework it assumes.
Weeks 9–11
Mercantilism, the invisible hand paragraph, and Smith against the merchants.
Weeks 12–14
Sympathy, the impartial spectator, and whether the two books agree.
The Wealth of Nations (selections)
Adam Smith
Reader supplied; Glasgow edition page numbers used throughout.
Smith is read as a moral philosopher who wrote about commerce, not as a mascot. Passages inconvenient to modern free-market rhetoric are assigned on purpose.
Read our academic philosophyMeetings are recorded and released to enrolled families for fourteen days. Recordings capture the instructor and shared materials; student video is not published.
Full refund up to seven days before the first meeting; inside seven days, everything paid is credited to your Lyceum balance. No refunds or credits once the class has begun. Cancel any section from your parent account.
These describe how this instructor has been trained, reviewed with educators and accessibility specialists. They are not a diagnosis and not a marketing claim.
Students and parents review separately, on different questions, and the two aggregates are never blended. Every review is verified and moderated.
No parent reviews for this class yet.
Reviews from students are published as “Student, age 13”, never with a full name. Photo and short video reviews are supported and moderated before they appear.
Economics
Eight weeks, both sides, no slogans
Smith, Mises, Hayek and Friedman put directly against Marx, Polanyi, and the modern critics, with students required to state each case in its strongest form.
Mr. Thomas WardNew this term
Reviews appear once families have taken it.
$8/wk
$48 in total
$19.20 for add’l siblings
Great Books
The year-long seminar · Ages 15–18
A full year inside Tocqueville: both volumes, forty pages a week, discussed live every Tuesday with twelve other students.
Dr. Alan HaleNew this term
Reviews appear once families have taken it.
$8/wk
$56 in total
$22.40 for add’l siblings
Great Books
A whole-book seminar
Douglass in his own words: the Narrative read whole, plus the Fourth of July speech, with attention to how a man argued his way into freedom.
Ms. Imani BellNew this term
Reviews appear once families have taken it.
$8/wk
$56 in total
$22.40 for add’l siblings
