Ridgefield Liberty Cooperative

We are very encouraged by the responses we have received from the local high schools and colleges.

Lorrie Rodrigue, Principal of Pomperaug High School writes:

“…we would communicate this to our students at Pomperaug HS:  through our classes, on our website, through flyers, and through our daily communication to students via announcements. Certainly teachers could encourage students in economics and other related courses.”

“…this is a wonderful opportunity for our students and so highly relevant for them.  We are engaged in teaching elements of critical literacy at Pomperaug – ensuring that students learn to question critically literature and media in order to respond more thoughtfully to texts and people in society.  This exercise is a perfect exercise in doing just that!” (Emphasis added)

Thank you Lorrie.  That is exactly what we are trying to do!

Freda Boguchwal, an educator in the  Social Studies Department at Wilton High School writes:

“Thank you very much for the invitation.  I teach Economics at Wilton High School, and I am also the advisor of the Economics Club. We have participated in the Connecticut Economics Challenge and look forward to participating in your Program. We are just starting the unit on the Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy, so the timing works wonderfully.  I will xerox and distribute the flyer, and hopefully a contingent of my students will be in attendance. I am excited about your challenge and I know my students will be also!”

“We have participated in the Northeastern Regional Finals in two recent years as Connecticut lst place winner of the non-AP division. We won the region title in 2007, and placed 4th in the nation that year. We have an active group of students highly interested in Economics, and they will jump at the chance to enter your challenge!”

We love to see that type of enthusiasm.

Charles Dumais, Principal of Newtown High School, posted the event to the school blog (here) and said he would advertise the event to his students.

Mariana Coelho, Principal of New Fairfield High School forwarded information on the event to all her social studies and business teachers.

Professor Averell R. Manes, Ph.D., of Western Connecticut State University (“WCSU”)writes:

“Thank you for sending the information and flyer.  I will circulate it among my students and post it in the department.  Timely topic …. Glad to hear Dean Morton will speak.  …[T]hank you for offering yet another interesting opportunity to our students. “

When referring to another program, I believe Professor Manes was referring to a forum we hosted during the presidential primary season at the Ridgefield Playhouse.  Attendees seemed to appreciate the unique forum-type  format of the program.  We intend to try to draw on that experience to allow the audience to participate in the upcoming Federal Reserve program in a meaningful way.

When referring to Dean Morton, Professor Manes refers to Allen Morton, Dean of the School of Business at WCSU, who has agreed to be on our panel of judges.

Professor Martha May of WCSU writes,

“As you know, both Sowell and Woods are conservatives.  Ron Cherow is an excellent journalist, and not overtly ideological.  I’d suggest adding the very readable Nobel prize winning Paul Krugman, who is very accessible.  Brad DeLong, who teaches at U.C. Berkeley, has an excellent blog (with useful links to his lectures in economic history), which you can find at http://delong.typepad.com/.  Another liberal voice missing from your list is Thomas Friedman, also a very readable writer.  You might also consider balancing the conservative writers with American economists writing from the left, such as Walter LaFeber (a historian, not an economist, but his Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism is very good for students).  Finally, an excellent online resource in economic history is the eh service at http://eh.net/, which provides a good encyclopedia and histories (and is run by a diverse group of economic historians).”

Thank you Professor May. I would like to point out that Tom Woods probably would disagree with your description of him as a conservative. Rather, I believe he would describe himself as a member of the Austrian school (in the Hayek tradition) and that he would feel more comfortable with the “classical liberal” or “libertarian” label.  Now that I have read Paul Krugman’s The Return of Depression Economics, I am adding it to the list of resources on the main page.

We have also heard from students at a number of colleges who inform us that they are spreading the word to friends at other colleges. We will post news from colleges to our web site as we receive new information.

Richard S. Land

October 17, 2009