Center for the American Idea
The Center for the American Idea is the leading program of the Free Enterprise Institute, a Houston-based think tank, founded in 1976 by Rolland Storey to advance the principles of liberty and free enterprise through continuing education programs for teachers.
Programs
The Center for the American Idea promotes Burkean conservative principles to teachers through various programs, such as workshops and lectures. Teachers study writers who have influenced the Western intellectual tradition from the classical age to the modern period. The most common sources for the Center's readings are:
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Thucydides
- Polybius
- Cicero
- Plutarch
- St. Augustine
- St. Thomas Aquinas
- Dante Alighieri
- Shakespeare
- John Locke
- Edmund Burke
- Adam Smith
- James Madison
- George Washington
- John Adams
- Tocqueville
- Lord Acton
- G. K. Chesterton
- Russell Kirk
American Idea Conferences
The Institute’s American Idea Conferences have multiple lectures on a single day on a specific theme. Teachers hear lectures by professors in such fields as economics, history, government, and literature. With partnerships in the community, the Institute has been holding conferences at the University of St. Thomas, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Museum of Fine Arts, and the Federal Reserve Bank Dallas – Houston Branch.
The American Founding and the Western Intellectual Tradition Colloquia
The Institute's partnership with Liberty Fund, Inc., a free-market oriented foundation based in Indianapolis, has made possible a series of intensive programs across the United States. With this partnership, the Institute is hand picking educators for these discussions on texts related to liberty and its moral foundation. Colloquia will be held at cities like Philadelphia and Williamsburg, sites with deep ties to America's founding. Educators compare texts on the role of liberty in free enterprise, private property, and limited government. Topics include: Liberty and Responsibility in the Western Tradition, The Constitutional Convention & Liberty, Tyranny and Liberty in Shakespeare and Plutarch, Historical & Philosophical Roots of American Constitutionalism, and the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists: Competing Visions of Liberty.
American Idea Socratic Symposia
Institute Socratic Symposia are small group, one-day seminar sessions. Teachers read a specific text relating to freedom and responsibility. Visiting scholars lead them in an orderly discussion where they engage each other in a rigorous consideration of the text at issue: what it says, how it says it, and what difference it makes. This forum provides teachers with an environment where they are able to exchange their ideas at a graduate school level. Past Socratic Symposia include such topics as: Jacques Barzun-The Classics and Education and Russell Kirk: A Program for Conservatives. These discussions are an opportunity for teachers to develop an ongoing relationship with the Institute.
Related links
- University of St. Thomas
- Liberty Fund
- ISI
Sources
- "Unsung Conservatives. Fifteen who made a difference." National Review, Dec. 19, 2005. Rolland Storey and the Free Enterprise Institute.
- Center for the American Idea website