Spring enrollment is open · See the catalog
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.
New this term. Reviews from students and parents appear here once families have taken it.
Students read the defenders and the critics of market society in their own words, then are graded on how accurately they can restate a position before attacking it. The instructor’s own sympathies are stated openly in week one and then held to the same evidentiary standard as everyone else’s.
Every meeting of this class stands on its own. Nothing in week six assumes week five, so a student can join in the middle, take the four weeks that fit around a busy month, and stop when they want to. There is no catching up to do, because there is nothing to be behind on.
That is also why there is no grade here and no such thing as an incomplete. The record keeps what actually happened: the meetings attended live and the recordings watched. A student who came to three meetings has a record of three meetings, not a failure.
Week 1
Smith’s pin factory and the invisible hand, and what it does and does not claim.
Week 2
Hayek’s "The Use of Knowledge in Society," read whole.
Week 3
Marx on alienation and surplus value, presented as its adherents would present it.
Week 4
Polanyi and the argument that markets are embedded in societies, not prior to them.
Week 5
The socialist calculation debate: Mises, Lange, and how it actually turned out.
Week 6
What the data show, what it means, and where the moral argument sits.
Week 7
Government failure as the symmetric case to market failure.
Week 8
Students present the opposing case and are scored on its strength.
Course reader
Odysseus Lyceum
All readings supplied as PDFs; no purchase required.
None. Any student in the age range can enroll.
A course with a stated free-enterprise sympathy that requires every student to be able to argue against it competently. Grading rewards fairness to opponents.
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.
Great Books
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.
Mr. Thomas WardNew this term
Reviews appear once families have taken it.
$8/wk
$56 in total
$22.40 for add’l siblings
Personal Finance
Twice a week · Five weeks · Ages 15–18
Budget, credit, compounding, taxes and insurance in five weeks, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Built to be finished before a first job starts.
Mr. Thomas WardNew this term
Reviews appear once families have taken it.
$14/wk
$70 in total
$28 for add’l siblings
Logic
Reward-unlockable
Proof-based geometry taught the classical way, and redeemable with the credit earned from the core sequence.
Mr. Thomas WardNew this term
Reviews appear once families have taken it.
$7/wk
$49 in total
$19.60 for add’l siblings
