Objectivist Glenn Woiceshyn, with degrees in Engineering Science and Mechanical Engineering, became alarmed with the quality of education his (then) nine-year-old son was receiving, and began to homeschool him with two other fifth graders.
He was dissatisfied with the basic materials available to him, and began to create his own, which are now available to other homeschoolers. They can be seen at his website.
Strong Brains
Andrew Layman, Objectivist from Microsoft, has designed a website with about 500 books covering the essentials of an education in the arts and sciences.
The books are listed by topic (Sciences, Technologies, Arts) and by sequence from the most basic to the more specialized, and are of special interest to homeschooling parents and others interested in educating themselves or their children.
Lisa VanDamme, former homeschooler and founder/Director of the VanDamme Academy of Laguna Hills, California, has published on educational matters in the Objective Standard and Capitalism Magazine, and has lectured at the Ayn Rand Institute.
Montessori Schools
The "Montessori Method" has been praised by Ayn Rand as epistemologically superior, and has been shown in many studies to live up to that praise. Maria Montessori, the first woman to graduate from an Italian medical school, originally designed her internationally famous program for youngsters between about three and six.
There is a "caveat" here, however; Montessori considered her achievement to be a "gift to the children of the world," and did not protect the integrity of the method or the materials by copyright or patents. As a result, anyone without any training whatsoever can fraudulantly label his or her establishment as a "Montessori school."
It is therefore very important when considering a Montessori school for a child to determine whether the teachers have been certified by a recognized Montessori organization such as the American Montessori Association, the International Montessori Association, etc.
