One Text Excerpt Per Week for a School Year
First Semester
1Why is America Great?
1. Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville
2. United States Bill of Rights
3. The Declaration of Independence
4. The Magna Carta
5. The Federalist Papers (10 & 51)
2What is Freedom?
1. I Pencil by Leonard Read
2. Free to Choose by Milton Friedman
3. Manifiesto of the Communist Party by Marx and Engles
4. 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
3When Does Power Corrupt?
1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The Diary of Anne Frank
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
4. The Prince by Machiavelli
5. The Law by Bastiat
4Is the US on the Road to Serfdom?
1. The Invisible Hand by Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations)
2. What is Money by Fréderic Bastiat
3. The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek (Chapter 10)
4. Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
5Can Religious Freedom Exist without Free Speech?
1. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
2. Prison Ministry by John MacArthur 2020
3. First Amendment Ruling NYC 2020
4. Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
5. The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan
6How Should a Kid/Teen Respond to the Post 2020 World?
1. Corn Pone Opinions by Mark Twain
2. Animal Farm by George Orwell
3. Plato's Allegory of the Cave
4. Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
Second Semester
1Whose Story is US History?
1. Abraham Lincoln's Lyceum Address
2. The American Story by Garet Grarrett (Right leaning perspective)
3. A People's History of the US by Howard Zinn (Left leaning perspective)
4. The 1619 Project (New York Times version of US History)
2Do Supreme Court Decisions Impact Daily Life?
1. Roe vs. Wade (1973) Abortion
2. Abington School District vs. Schempp (1963) Bible in Public Schools
3. Van Orden vs. Perry (2005) 10 Commandments in Public
4. District of Columbia vs. Heller (2008) Gun Rights
5. Alabama Association of Realtors vs.Dept. of Health and Human Services (2021) Property Rights
3Is America a Racist and Socialist Country?
1. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
2. How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi
3. American Marxism by Mark Levin
4. Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
5. Socialism or Barbarism by Rosa Luxemburg
4Can the Economy Exist Without Politics?
1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Great Depression)
2. The Economic Consequences of Peace by John Maynard Keynes
3. Mao's Little Red Book (On Capitalism, Socialism and WW3)
4. Reaganomics (Ronald Reagan's Speeches on Taxes and Government)
5Is the US a Democracy?
1. Plato's Republic
2. Apology by Plato (Socrate's Trial by Pure Democracy)
3. Democracy or Republic, 8 Measures by Dinesh D'Souza
4. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
5. Two Treatises of Government by John Lock (Natural Rights)
6Are Schools Dumbing Down Education?
1. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
2. Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
3. Democracy and Education by John Dewey
4. Their Finest Hour by Winston Churchill
Critical Thinking Schooling