For years, the Martin Center has been saying that we need new educational institutions, ones that just teach rather than try to indoctrinate students with any particular view. Most of our existing ones have been badly infiltrated by pseudo-scholars peddling their collectivist beliefs.
There is some good news on this front. Some schools have recently arisen, and in today’s Martin Center article, Nikolai Wenzel discusses the one he’s affiliated with, Universidad de las Hesperides.
Wenzel writes:
The Universidad de las Hespérides is a start-up, online, classical-liberal endeavor. It is an exciting exercise in academic entrepreneurship, combining virtual courses for students around the globe, a blend of synchronous and asynchronous classes, and rigorous scientific inquiry that is firmly based in an appreciation for the philosophical and institutional foundations of a free society.
The edu-preneur behind Hesperides had to battle the bureaucrats in Spain for years before he was able to begin Hesperides last year, with a small campus located in the Canary Islands. Wenzel enjoys teaching the students — mostly in Spanish.
“Hespérides’s founders are well aware of the pathologies of the modern university,” Wenzel states. “Echoing Paul Heyne’s warning several decades ago, Dr. Calzada refers to the “non-aggression agreement” between many university professors and university students: I will give you good grades and minimal work if you give me good evaluations and the time to write. Hespérides, in the tradition of Universidad Francisco Marroquin, is conscious about maintaining quality teaching and open discussion, eschewing both the mediocrity and the cancel culture that have plagued so many contemporary universities.”
Bravo!