Congratulations to our students whose works were selected for publication in this year’s Creative Communication Celebrating What Is Important to Me essay contest: Sam Anthony; Lukas, Danny, and Josh Carroll; Maggie and Molly Harnish; Jacqui and Nathania Hofstetter; Samantha and Noelle Ludlum; Tad and Baret Lyon; Nathan Master; David Matej; Rachel Meell and Stephanie Meell; Eleanor and Samuel Miller; Laura, Sarah, and David Null; Ace Robinson; and Elena Sutton.  Well done!

In addition:

• Students in grades K-12 are busy working on their poetry for the upcoming Creative Communications poetry contest.
• Grades 5-8 are writing for the Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest, on the topic “The Ideals of the Gettysburg Address.”
• Noelle Ludlum will represent TAA in the 27th annual essay contest, sponsored by Penn State University.

Thanks to Dr. Traver, Mrs. Null, and Mrs. Chagan for all of their hard work helping our students find their muse!

It’s that time of year to begin thinking of “Operation Brotherhood,” an outreach sponsored by Skilton House Ministries in the name of Christ to provide food for needy families at Thanksgiving time. Last year 1,831 food bags were packed (aided by our able students!) and distributed, along with a 12-pound, frozen turkey added later to each bag. Donations of any amount of the following canned foods will be appreciated: 1 lb. can of Peas, 1 lb. can of Corn, 1 lb. can of Green Beans, 1 lb. can of Cranberry Sauce or Fruit, 1 box of Stuffing, 1 lb. can of Yams or Potatoes, 1 or 2 lbs. of Rice.

The American Academy recommends the following events in the greater Philadelphia area:

• From the Wynnewood Institute: Tuesday, 11/7, at Wyndham Hall, Bryn Mawr College, Dr. David Legates, Climatologist, will speak on “The Scientific Perspective on Global Warming.” Dr. Legates is Joint Associate Professor in Physical Ocean Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware College of Marine and Earth Studies.
• Pastor, and prolific author Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, ID will debate Christopher Hitchens, outspoken atheist and NY Times bestselling author of God is Not Great.  The topic will be Apologetics in Action: Aesthetics and the Existence of God - Atheism vs. Christianity.  We advise that you arrive early for this lecture, which starts at 6:30 PM on Thursday October 30th at Westminster Theological Seminary. For more information, please see Westminster’s web site.
• Also on Thursday October 30th, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute will present a lecture by Dr. Charles Taylor entitled “A Secular Age.”  This event will begin at 5:30pm at the Greenville Country Club in Wilmington, DE.  Dr. Taylor is the author of a book of the same title, named best book of 2007 by Publishers’ Weekly.  Click here for more details.

The American Academy will hold an open house on Saturday, November 22nd, starting at 6PM.

Anyone interested in attending should contact the school (see our contacts page for the phone number).

From a Daniel Akst article in the Wall Street Journal, 29 August 2008:

What is this miracle that lies within the reach of nearly every family? It’s simple. All you have to do is to start insisting that your children fully apply themselves to their studies — and commit yourself to doing your part. That means making sure they do all the work expected of them as well as their abilities allow. It also means making sure everything at home stands behind these principles and supports the idea of learning.

Read the entire article here.

Two upcoming events of note to TAA students, family, and friends:

Dr. Allen Guelzo on Bill Bennett’s Radio Show

Tomorrow, Thursday August 21 at 7:30am on 990 am radio listen to our Advisory Board member Allen Guelzo being interviewed on the Bill Bennett radio show on the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

StarFest 2008

The Chester-Montgomery County Astronomical Society is holding their annual StarFest this Saturday, August 23, starting at 4:00 PM. The event will be held at Warwick County Park in northern Chester County, just off route 23 about 3.5 miles west of route 100. Admission is free, but the Chesco parks department will collect a $5 parking fee.

Schedule of Events:

• 4:00 to 6:00 Telescope set-up/ Solar Observing
• 6:00 to 7:00 Kids Corner Educational Activities
• 7:00 to 7:30 “How to get your Picture in the NY Times!” by Robert Werkman
• 7:30 to 8:00 “What We’ll See Tonight” by Martin Howe
• 8:00 to 8:30 Dark Sky Preservation by Rob Cordivari
• 8:30 to 9:30 Guest Speaker, Dr. Fronefield Crawford III, Franklin & Marshall College, “Stellar Death”
• 9:30 Drawing of the Grand Prize followed by…
• Public stargazing through Amateur Telescopes

Click here for more information.

Throughout July, TAA students, faculty, and friends are attending exciting lectures at The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Philadelphia offices. Upcoming topics are listed on FPRI’s site here and include:

Wednesday, July 9, 11-12 noon - Inside Pakistan: A Trip Report

Nicholas Schmidle, Fellow, New America Foundation

Nicholas Schmidle is a fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC, and a freelance writer whose work focuses on the intersection of culture, religion and politics in Asia. He has reported from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Central Asia and Iran, and his work has been published in Slate, New Republic, Washington Post and other publications. He lived in Pakistan as a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs from February 2006 through January 2008, when he left under threat of deportation following the publication of his “Next-Gen Taliban” in the New York Times Magazine. He is now writing a book about his experience in Pakistan, to be published by Henry Holt.

Tuesday, July 22, 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM - The New National Defense Strategy

Thomas Mahnken, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning

Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning since November 2006. From 1997-2006, Dr. Mahnken was a Professor of Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College, and from 2004-06 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He is author of Uncovering Ways of War: U.S. Intelligence and Foreign Military Innovation, 1918-1941 (Cornell, 2002). He is editor (with Emily O. Goldman) of The Information Revolution in Military Affairs in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) and (with Richard K. Betts) of Paradoxes of Strategic Intelligence: Essays in Honor of Michael Handel (Frank Cass, 2003). As a Navy Reserve intelligence officer, he served with Naval Special Warfare unites in Iraq and Bahrain and was part of NATO’s initial deployment into Kosovo in 1999.

Wednesday, July 30, 11-12 noon - From Stone to Silicon: A Brief Survey of Technology and Inventions

Lawrence Husick, Senior Fellow, FPRI, and co-project director for FPRI’s project on Teaching Innovation

Lawrence Husick is a Senior Fellow at FPRI, where he has helped develop a project on Teaching the History of Innovation. He is also an adjunct professor in the Organizational Dynamics Masters Program of the University of Pennsylvania and at the Whiting Graduate School of Engineering of the Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Husick was co-founder and principal system architect of Infonautics Corporation (now HighBeam Research, Inc.), which offers the Electric Library on the World Wide Web, for which he has been awarded five U.S. patents. He serves as Chief Innovation Officer of TeraDisc, LLC, a pioneering company in the field of in silico drug research. He has been a consultant to both government and private organizations as a systems analyst and design engineer. Husick served as the Senior Legal Fellow of Apple Computer, Inc. for seven years.

It’s Summer School at The American Academy!

• We have had a great science camp in June in Potter County, where the students built rockets and successfully launched them; they built electric engines out of ordinary household items; they hiked, star-gazed, and went fishing.
• June17 was our all day summer book discussion at Dr. Traver’s house. The students read George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion together, watched My Fair Lady and had a fun pizza dinner. Thank you to the Travers!
• High school students attended a three day trip to Washington DC. Courtesy of Senator Arlen Specter’s office, they had special tours of the Russell building, saw the 19 C senatorial marble baths (now underneath heating equipment!), rode the underground tram to the Capitol Building, toured all aspects of that building and ended with tickets to observe the Senate debating several items – that was just one afternoon. Senator Specter’s office also arranged a special early morning tour of the Library of Congress, where 20,000 items are received and stored each day – and not all of them are books! The students also saw Hillwood, home of Marjorie M. Post, the National Cathedral, The Museum of Natural History, the Holocaust Museum, the special archaeology exhibit from Afghanistan (National Gallery, East wing) and enjoyed a wonderful evening tour of the lit monuments of the city. Thank you to Mrs. Chagan for organizing this memorable trip.
• On July 1, students attended the annual Intercollegiate Studies Institute BBQ in Wilmington, DE. Charles Murray spoke about education. He cited the lack of education for bright students as a “national security crisis.” Tom Anderson wrote a review of the lecture for The Bulletin which appeared last week.

WHYY (the Natl Public Radio outlet in the Philadelphia area, at 91 FM) is going to feature TAA Advisor Dr. Allen Guelzo in a live interview on Lincoln and Douglas as part of their morning call-in feature, “Radio Times,” with Marty Moss-Coane http://www.whyy.org/91FM/radiotimes.html Tuesday May 13th from 10.45 am until noon. This is in connection with an appearance he’ll be making at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia later that day.

Congratulations to David Matej, who won first place in the second grade category for his poem “Spring Baseball and Winter Basketball,” and to his sister Barbara Matejova, who won second place in the twelfth grade category for her poem “Not Yet Right: A Villanelle,” in the Delaware County Young Poets competition, sponsored by the Delaware County Library System.  They have been invited to read their poetry aloud at the awards ceremony.