Last week was a big week for us. Honor attended a economics seminar in Salt Lake City sponsored by FEE, the Foundation of Economic Education. See http://fee.org. It was called Freedom Academy I, FEE is all about promoting free market economics. I took him to the Univ. of Utah for that on on Monday and on the way home met with someone to buy a used cell phone, to replace the one that got dunked at Seven Peaks water park with me. Then on Thursday though Saturday I got to go to LEMI training to learn how to mentor the LEMI scholar project called Sword of Freedom, which is a class about the war between the states. I will write a separate post later to capture some of my nuggets and epiphanies.

I got to pick up Honor from his seminar and take him to the Sword training and then take him back to the U. for his seminar. I was a little nervous about putting him in a place with strangers. It worked out OK. He had lots of missionary opportunities to answer questions about the gospel. One of the afternoons they had free time to go sightseeing. Some of the kids, including Honor, went to Temple Square.

Here’s Valor at the end of LEMI training, after I picked him up from the FEE seminar. It looks like this picture was taken in a shopping mall, but it’s not. It was taken where LEMI training was held in the downtown SLC public library. It’s a pretty fancy looking library. I hope it actually has books worth reading. They kept us so busy with training and homework that I didn’t have time to check. .

The seminar was free. FEE paid for all housing and meals. Valor stayed all week and learned all these cool things. I asked him to  tell me some of the things he learned. He said he learned that the Great Depression was not caused by the free market. He said it was caused because of all the new money introduced by the Federal Reserve, which got started in 1913. OK, so far I really like what I am hearing. This is stuff you don’t hear in your typical high school history textbook. 

All the participants got a free book, Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. This has been a primer on free market economics for over 50 years, influencing such people as Ron Paul, You can read it for free here http://www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson/ or listen to it here http://www.fee.org/media/economics-in-one-lesson-abridged-audiobook/

Lawrence Reed was one of the speakers. He gave a presentation about men and women of character, titled, “How to Make a Difference in the World.” Some of these people included Thomas Clarkson, Grover Cleveland, and a guy whose name my son couldn’t remember. This guy went on a trip to Czecoslovakia during the 1930s. While there he encountered some Jewish German refugees. This man went back to England and worked to get these Jewish people out. He was able to get over 700 people out into England and Sweden before Hitler put a stop to it in his rise for power.  

The students were encouraged to do some readings and watchings of YouTube videos before the seminar on economics. One of the readings was the essay “I, Pencil,” by Leonard Reed. The above video features the essay. It’s all about how so many forces have to coordinate to make something as simple as a pencil. A pencil can not be made by one single person. Many people combine together to make it. Yet  It happens without a ton of thought, negotiation,  or  government intervention because of free market forces.

Here’another take on it.

All in all, Honor had a great time. FEE does this seminar every year in different locations. I encourage you to go to fee.org and sign up for the mailing list so you can hear about next year’s seminars. They do ones for college students and adults as well.