What happens when you build an education system around the needs of the student instead of the demands of the state?
In other words, what does education for a free society look like?
That question lies at the heart of Reliance College, founded by Marsha Familaro Enright—an educator and visionary who has spent decades reclaiming learning from top-down bureaucracies and returning it to the individual. In a recent viral interview with Corey Deanglelis and Matt Nielsen of the Educational Freedom Institute (now viewed over 54,000 times and counting on X), Enright laid out a bold alternative to conventional schooling—rooted in Montessori principles, entrepreneurial thinking, and deep, student-led inquiry.
From Medicine to Montessori
Enright began by telling the story of Dr. Maria Montessori, the first female doctor in Italy, who developed her educational method in the early 20th century. After working with institutionalized children, Montessori realized that they weren’t merely disabled—they were deprived. She introduced hands-on, self-correcting materials, sensory-rich environments, and individualized learning. The results were dramatic: children previously considered “unteachable” began to thrive.
Inspired by Montessori’s insight, Enright went on to found Council Oak Montessori School in Chicago, which serves students from age 3 to 15. In this setting, students work at their own pace, choose activities based on interest and readiness, and collaborate in mixed-age classrooms. The teacher’s role isn’t to lecture, it’s to observe and guide—supporting each student’s development in a way that cultivates curiosity, self-confidence, and responsibility.
A New Kind of College
After decades working with children and adolescents, Enright turned her sights to higher education. She saw a university system increasingly overtaken by collectivist ideologies—where students were taught what to think, not how to think. “They were changing the curriculum,” she said. “Getting rid of the classics, the so-called ‘dead white males’… and edging out anyone with a different point of view.”
Reliance College is her answer: a new liberal arts college in Chicago with a radical goal—to prepare students to become the entrepreneurs of their own lives, both professionally and personally.
The curriculum blends the best of the Great Books tradition with real-world work experience, one-on-one tutorials, and interdisciplinary inquiry. Students explore foundational questions like: What is freedom? How should I live? What is truth? They examine these themes through close reading, collaborative Socratic dialogue, and projects that connect their studies to real challenges in business, science, and the arts.
Education for a Free Society
One of Enright’s most compelling insights is that the classroom is not just a place to transfer knowledge—it’s a training ground for life in a free society.
“If you think about it, the classroom is a mini society… how you treat people in the classroom is where you develops your habits for dealing with people in general.”
Too many traditional classrooms, she argues, are authoritarian in structure and passive in content. Students are taught to obey rather than inquire, to memorize rather than reason, to conform rather than create.
The result? A generation of students unprepared to think for themselves—and all too ready to surrender their judgment to “experts.”
At Reliance College, students learn how to reason, not just recite. They learn how to disagree respectfully and collaborate meaningfully. Through Socratic seminars and guided discussions, they become confident in their ability to judge arguments, weigh evidence, and articulate their own perspective.
As one past student put it after attending Reliance’s summer program, “Now I can judge anything for myself.”
What Comes Next
Reliance College will open in the fall of 2026 as a residential college, but the foundation is already being built. Through the Great Connections Seminar, week-long intensives, and Reliance Days in cities around the country, Reliance College is introducing more students, parents, and educators to the power of a truly liberating education.
The vision is ambitious: a campus in downtown Chicago, a world-class faculty aligned with the mission, and a generation of graduates equipped not just with knowledge—but with purpose, resilience, and the tools to shape their own lives.
As Enright says, most colleges today prepare students to jump through hoops. Reliance prepares them to build a life.
🎓 Want to experience the difference?
Learn more or apply for our summer seminar at www.RelianceCollege.org/seminar
📺 Watch the full interview below.
