Classical Education: The Movement Sweeping America examines the decline of American education and offers a solution. It is not more spending or a new and innovative program. Rather the solution, according to authors Gene Edward Veith, Jr. and Andrew Kern, is classical education.

“America education cannot improve until we have a new theory of education. Fortunately, one exists,” Veith and Kern write. “An increasing number of schools and educators are returning to an approach to education that is the bedrock of Western culture:  classical education.”

Veith and Kern examine contemporary education theories that have failed during the 20th century. Among them are modernism, postmodernism, and multiculturalism. They in turn produced Whole Language, Goals 2000, School-to-Work, critical thinking and technology in the classroom. It is clear that these approaches are not working.

In Classical Education, the authors examine six different approaches elementary and secondary schools use to tie the “3 Rs” to the moral and civic education of the Western tradition. They include Christian Classicism, which is advocated by the Association of Classical and Christian Schools; Democratic Classicism, which has been adopted by over 100 public schools; Moral Classicism, which is based on the idea that education is a path to virtue; and Liberating Classicism, Marva Collins’ program for minority children in poor neighborhoods that emphasizes phonics and character education.

This revised and updated edition includes new chapters on classical education in Catholic schools and in the homeschooling movement.

Veith and Kern also review the best liberal arts colleges in the U.S. that teach Western tradition and they provide a directory listing of organizations that work for a return to classical education.

Gene Edward Veith is Professor of English and Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia University-Wisconsin. He is the culture editor of World magazine and author of a dozen books, including Reading Between the Lines: A Christian Guide to Literature, State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe, Modern Fascism: The Liquidation of the Judeo-Christian Worldview, Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, and Christians in a Dot.Com World. Veith is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kansas.

Andrew Kern is director of CIRCE (Consulting and Integrated Resources for Classical Education), a consulting and research service to classical schools and those that want to start one. He helped establish two classical schools, Providence Academy in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Foundations Academy in Boise, Idaho, and has taught every grade from third to twelfth on almost every subject. A sought-after teacher-trainer, Kern is a popular speaker at classical education conferences and workshops. He is a graduate of Concordia University.

What They Are Saying:

“This is a perfect little book on a vast subject: lucid without being simplistic, opinionated without being dogmatic, comprehensive yet to the point. In unaffected, everyday language, it conveys a wealth of ancient education wisdom to modern minds.”–David Hicks, author of Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education

“Classical Education reminds us that every achievement of humankind is valuable, and every child’s soul is damaged when we fail to demand that they achieve. Our young people respond with violence and anger when schools and teachers put labels on them: “Inferior,” “born to fail,” “inability to cope.” Our children don’t need tags, measures, inkblot tests. They are screaming for a curriculum that challenges their minds.”–Marva Collins, founder of Westside Preparatory School, Chicago

Published in 1998, Global Greens narrates the story of international environmental groups in world affairs. It examines how nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) work with the United Nations and other international organizations to promote environmentalist policies and treaties. To understand many of the current foreign policy controversies it is increasingly important to know how international environmental groups are involved.

Global Greens describes in detail NGO activity at some of the most significant UN environmental conferences through the end of the 20th century, including the global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan. Most of the story is serious, but some of it amuses. Inside the Kyoto conference hall, four men disguised as world leaders play soccer with a large inflatable balloon of the planet, activists blanketed the building with propaganda leaflets, and a group of grim-faced individuals stand solemnly around three ice carvings of penguins begging the little creatures to forgive mankind for permitting the global warming that causes them to melt.

As recent news developments have confirmed, environmental groups have been accomplishing–and continue to accomplish–their objectives gradually and under a cloak of secrecy. Few Americans know that nonprofit organizations, staffed by professionals, primarily Americans, and financed by a mix of private and public funds, exercise real power in the conduct of diplomacy and the creation of international policy. A global environmental movement is using international agencies to undermine national self-government, economic freedom, and personal liberty.  Global Greens exposes the behind-the-scenes efforts of this well-funded and ideologically driven force.

James M. Sheehan is an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He specializes in policies concerning international environmental regulation, trade, finance, and foreign aid. Sheehan speaks and writes about such international institutions as the United Nations, World Bank, NAFTA, and the World Trade Organization. He has presented his views on television programs for CNN, C-SPAN, CNBC, Fox News and America’s Voice. His writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun, San Francisco Examiner, Washington Times, and Journal of Commerce. He has testified before Congress and is a frequent guest on radio programs across the country, including National Public Radio.

Sheehan holds a Master of Business Administration from Duke University and a BA in international politics from the Catholic University of America.

What They Are Saying:

“Mr. Sheehan does a masterful job of exposing yet another way the U.S. Constitution is undermined at taxpayer expense–by non-governmental organizations acting in concert with the United Nations.”–Hon. Ron Paul, U.S. House of Representatives (R-TX)

“James Sheehan presents the classic libertarian arguments against the international environmental movement. In his zealous attack on environmental organizations, Sheehan misses the boat on almost every subject but the World Bank.”–Brent Blackwelder, President, Friends of the Earth

“Sheehan meticulously documents how ideological advocacy groups use international organizations and treaties to shape public opinion and policy in this country. His book is a much-needed wake-up call–Americans must thoughtfully but unhesitatingly oppose the agendas of global governance if we are to preserve our system of self-government.”–Alan L. Keyes, former Ambassador to the UN Economic and Social Council

Published in 2008, the Capital Research Center’s Guide to Nonprofit Advocacy is a directory of over one hundred of the most prominent nonprofit public interest and political advocacy groups in America, both liberal and conservative. Each entry contains contact information, annual revenues, and bullet points of politically noteworthy activities. While not definitive or exhaustive, the Guide to Nonprofit Advocacy is intended to inform readers about the political background and policy preferences of advocacy groups frequently cited by the news media such as AARP, ACLU, American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, Brookings Institution, Code Pink, Common Cause, and numerous others.

Return to Charity?: Philanthropy and the Welfare State, by Martin Morse Wooster, clearly explains how the Victorian idea of charity for the poor was replaced by twentieth century social concepts of poverty and social welfare, which culminated in the “Great Society” welfare entitlement programs of the 196os. Wooster also identifies modern American conservatives who rediscovered the older idea of charity and who favor “faith-based” social service programs. Court cases permitting government assistance to faith-based groups are discussed.

Martin Morse Wooster, a Senior Fellow at Capital Research Center, received his undergraduate degree in history and philosophy from Beloit College.  He is a contributing editor of Philanthropy and a columnist for the Washington Times. He has been an associate editor of The American Enterprise, Washington editor of Reason, an associate editor of The Wilson Quarterly, and Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine. He is also the author of The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent,” Return to Charity?, The Foundation Builders, and By Their Bootstraps. He has also contributed articles on the history of philanthropy to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, The Encyclopedia of Philanthropy, The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, and Notable American Philanthropists.

A companion to The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent,” author Martin Morse Wooster considers whether the legal life of foundations should be limited to prevent successor trustees from ignoring the donor’s intent. This volume surveys past congressional attempts to limit foundation perpetuity and offers case studies of donors who have put legal limits on their own foundations, setting a termination date and requiring the foundation to pay out all its assets.

Martin Morse Wooster, a Senior Fellow at Capital Research Center, received his undergraduate degree in history and philosophy from Beloit College.  He is a contributing editor of Philanthropy and a columnist for the Washington Times. He has been an associate editor of The American Enterprise, Washington editor of Reason, an associate editor of The Wilson Quarterly, and Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine. He is also the author of The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent,” Return to Charity?, The Foundation Builders, and By Their Bootstraps. He has also contributed articles on the history of philanthropy to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, The Encyclopedia of Philanthropy, The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, and Notable American Philanthropists.

What They Are Saying:

“If a man has wealth, he has to make a choice, because there is the money heaping up. He can keep it together in a bunch, and then leave it for others to administer after he is dead. Or he can get it into action and have fun, while he is still alive. I prefer getting it into action and adapting it to human needs, and making the plan work.”–George Eastman, Eastman Kodak

“I think it is inevitable that as trustees and officers of perpetuities grow old they become more concerned to conserve the funds in their care than to wring from those funds the greatest possible usefulness. That tendency is evident already in some of the foundations, and as time goes on it will not lessen but increase. The cure for this disease is a radical operation. If the funds must exhaust themselves within a generation, no bureaucracy is likely to develop around them.”–Julius Rosenwald, Sears, Roebuck

“I believe that, after the first generation, inherited wealth loses the spirit and the values of the people who earned that wealth. There comes a disconnection between the funds and the source of the funds…. The culture of those in charge becomes not too dissimilar from the culture of the government bureaucracies who dispense funds confiscated from the taxpayers.”–Joseph J. Jacobs, Jacobs Engineering Group

The Great Philanthropists and the Problem of “Donor Intent” is a must-have book for anyone working in the philanthropic sector–especially anyone planning to establish a grantmaking foundation. Wooster provides fascinating case studies of influential entrepreneurs and philanthropists–including Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and the Pew family–who established foundations that strayed from the ideals and intentions of their benefactors. He contrasts their foundations with foundations that have stayed true to their donors’ intentions, such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Duke Endowment, and Conrad Hilton Foundation. Wooster surveys precedent-setting legal cases, including the recent and much publicized case of the Robertson family vs. Princeton University, that have upheld, compromised, or overturned donor intentions, and he explains what donors can do to make sure their intentions are honored by those who administer their requests.

Martin Morse Wooster, a Senior Fellow at Capital Research Center, received his undergraduate degree in history and philosophy from Beloit College.  He is a contributing editor of Philanthropy and a columnist for the Washington Times. He has been an associate editor of The American Enterprise, Washington editor of Reason, an associate editor of The Wilson Quarterly, and Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine. He is also the author of Should Foundations Live Forever?: The Question of Perpetuity, Return to Charity?, The Foundation Builders, and By Their Bootstraps. He has also contributed articles on the history of philanthropy to The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights, The Encyclopedia of Philanthropy, The Encyclopedia of the Victorian Era, and Notable American Philanthropists.

Today environmental advocacy groups are mired in Washington politics, bureaucratic infighting, and corrupt insider-dealing. Some green activists fear their movement is losing its vision. But Bonner R. Cohen, a veteran observer of the movement, argues that the problem is the movement’s hardening of vision. Environmental groups are determined to impose their priorities on every segment of society, and they have grown increasingly powerful in Washington and at the United Nations, and influential in corporate boardrooms, in churches, and with the media.

The Green Wave: Environmentalism and Its Consequences describes how activists created an ideology that now dominates public debate–and a movement of nonprofit groups that is well-organized and well funded. Whether the issue is energy exploration or agricultural production, public land use or private property rights, business ethics or government policies, advocates for “the environment” insist that their concerns must always come first. And they usually get their way.

Bonner Cohen’s The Green Wave is must reading. It masterfully exposes the inner workings of the nonprofit groups and foundation philanthropies that set the environmental agenda–and shape our daily lives.

Bonner R. Cohen serves as senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research and as senior policy analyst for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. He has written widely on environmental issues for over fifteen years. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, National Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, Washington Times, and dozens of other newspapers around the country. As a correspondent, he has covered environmental issues around the globe, from Japan, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland to Morocco, Turkey, Bangladesh, Australia, and South Africa. He has also testified before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and before subcommittees of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, House Resources Committee, and House Judiciary Committee. Cohen received a Ph.D. summa cum laude from the University of Munich and a B.A. from the University of Georgia.

A survey of 36 nonprofit feminist organizations describing their mission, activities, leadership, finances (including sources and amounts of government and corporate funding), The Guide to Feminist Organizations is a must read for anyone interested in the history and impact of the feminist movement. Published in 2002, this guide contains chapters on “Activists and Advocacy” (National Organization for Women, NOW Foundation, Ms. Foundation, League of Women Voters), “Young Women & Girls” (YWCA, Girls Scouts), “Think Tanks & Research” (Institute for Women’s Policy Research), “Working Women” (National Committee on Pay Equity), and “Women’s Health & Abortion” (Breast Cancer Action, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NARAL).

From the Foreword

“We must be grateful both to Kimberly Schuld and to her sponsor, the indispensable Capital Research Center, for producing this careful and detailed study of the various organizations and networks of foundations, policy centers, research institutes, and health networks that have gone into keeping women’s liberation alive, interconnected, and well-funded. By the time one finishes reading, there is no longer any mystery about how this movement — in so many fateful ways disconnected from the everyday lives and needs of ordinary women — has nevertheless so widely taken over. Through the creation of new organizations (such as NOW and the Ms. Foundation) and the capture of certain traditional ones (Young Women’s Christian Association and the American Association of University Women) and perhaps most politically effective of all, through the proliferation of pro-abortion projects and institutions, feminist activism has rapidly spread its troops through the American body politic as well as through both the learned and popular culture. All of us who think and care about the real lives of girls and women (not to mention men) owe both author and sponsor a genuine debt of gratitude.”–Midge Decter, from the Foreword

Now Available as an E-Book!

The Neighbor’s Kid tells the story of what twenty-four year-old Philip Brand discovered regarding American education when he drove his car cross-country during the 2008-09 school year visiting two schools in each of forty-nine states. The schools were public and private, religious and secular, urban and rural, typical and unusual. Brand wanted to learn first-hand what students, parents, teachers, and principals think about their elementary and secondary schools and what they expect from education. His principal discovery:  When it comes to picking a school parents care most about the kids with whom their own children associate. Not the curriculum, not the teachers, but the other kids. That concern has important consequences for how school districts, states and the federal government set education policy. A second conclusion:  Government policymakers cannot set standards of educational “achievement” because true education is intimately tied to the cultural and civic experiences of families and communities.

Philip Brand is the director of EducationWatch, a program of the Capital Research Center that monitors advocacy groups engaged in the debate over school choice and education reform. He is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with degrees in economics and political science.

What They Are Saying:

“Phil Brand’s purpose-driven road trip to schools across America has resulted in a book that is both insightful and delightful. His ground-level descriptions of scores of local schools and their communities illustrate the immense variety in American education. Brand is well suited for this Tocquevillian adventure. He is open and curious, and he can change his mind. From his classroom visits, conversations with educators, and wide-ranging reading he demonstrates the unwisdom of attempting to impose excessive uniformity on America’s schools. Brand shows that education is more than passing tests; it’s also about preserving the fabric of communities.”—William A. Fischel, Dartmouth College, author of Making the Grade: Economic Evolution of American School Districts