New Video Series: Life is not a Machine or a Ghost by Marsha Familaro Enright
We are pleased to share a three-part video series based on Reliance College founder Marsha Familaro Enright’s paper Life is not a Machine or a Ghost: The Naturalistic Origin of Life’s Organization and Goal-Directedness, Consciousness, Free Will, and Meaning, published in the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies in July 2023. In this series, Enright presents […]
What We Saw at the First AI Proof U™ Intensive
Earlier this month, Reliance College hosted the first in-person intensive of AI Proof U™ in Chicago. The experience offered a clear view into what this program is designed to do and why it matters at this particular moment. Over several days, participants engaged in sustained discussion, careful reading, and collaborative exercises that are increasingly rare […]
AI, Critical Thinking, and Socratic Practice in Higher Education
AI is spreading across academia, and as studies warn of its harm to critical thinking, Reliance College’s Socratic Practice offers a way to restore it.
What Vision Do Young People Need?
Originally published on October 21, 2022 in The American Thinker. Before the devastating psychological effects of the COVID lockdowns, the U.S. faced a frightening rise in drug addiction, with youth suicide becoming the second-leading cause of death among people aged 15–20 in the U.S., and suicide in children quadrupling from 2007 to 2020. What’s behind this alarming trend? Let’s […]
Montessori, Liberty, & Late Bloomers
MONTESSORI AND LIBERTY What’s the best way to teach and learn the ideas, values, and virtues needed in a free society? Is it enough to lecture and write about them? Those have been the favored methods used by free society advocates for decades. But actions speak louder than words – there is strong evidence that […]
Do Top Colleges Matter for Lifetime Success?
Thousands scramble to get into the Ivy League, Stanford, University of Chicago, and every other school considered elite. Is that the best strategy for picking a college? In “The Right Way to Choose A College, “ Stanford researcher Denise Pope discusses the overwhelming evidence that student engagement is fundamental to college—and life—success. “Engagement” is the […]
Scandals and Blueprints
A NEW SCANDAL – OR NOT? Isn’t the admissions scandal just a new variation on a long time practice of the universities? Wealthy, legacy children have gained entrance to the Ivy Leagues and other top schools since the 19th century, despite lack of qualifications. The difference here: the wealthy families in this current scandal don’t […]
Is Education In the Far East What It’s Cracked Up To Be?
I’ve spent most of my adult life examining the deficits of US education and tenure is one of the strong nails securing its coffin, as reported in The Heartland Institute blog: “In many districts, simply recommending a tenured teacher for dismissal takes at least two years because the district must document both the teacher’s weak […]
Marsha Familaro Enright Interviewed at Online Great Books Podcast
I was recently interviewed by the founder of the marvelous Online Great Books program, Scott Hambrick. He talked to me about the childhood events that triggered my lifelong interest in education, education’s problems and their roots, why reading Great Books is hard and how that can be mitigated, my encounters with Ayn Rand including her […]
Register Now for The Great Connections Leap Year
Apply Now! Enrollment is open for The Great Connections Leap Year! Please see all the information we’ve put on our updated website about the new program. Marsha Familaro Enright with Paul Enright at the New Trier Gap Fair Last weekend, I tabled at two Gap Fairs here in Chicago, Oak Park River Forest High School […]