Nobel Laureate Milton
Friedman Correspondence
with William Maxwell
on the Global Academy for International
Athletics
-----Original
Message-----
From:
Milton Friedman [mailto:friedman@hoover.stanford.edu]
Sent:
Tuesday, April 19, 2005 1:17 PM
To:
William Maxwell
Subject:
Re: Resurrecting Plato's Academy
Dear
Dr. Maxwell:
Your Plato's Academy is a splendid idea and I wish you every success in carrying it forward, but you are a brave man to begin such a venture at the age of 76.
I do not know whether you have had access to my book Capitalism and Freedom, published in 1962 by the University of Chicago Press. If you had, you will find that on pages 104-106 I discuss an investment project such as the one you are proposing to undertake, that is, one in which the cost of schooling will be repaid by the student in the form of a fraction of his or her subsequent income. In the interim, a number of people have communicated with me about plans to set up such a program and in one instance I know that it came to at least a partial fruition. I never did follow it up so I don't know what ultimately happened to it.
With respect to your own findings, $52,000 a year seems to me an extremely high cost for training athletes. Of course everything would depend on the scale. The cost would presumably be much less per student if you had a dozen students than if you had two or three. At any rate, you will discover this I am sure as you proceed with your plan.
You certainly have my moral support but, as you say, the clock of life experience runs and limits us all, and I am talking from the age of 92. To me you are still a veritable youth. My best wishes.
Sincerely
yours,
Milton
Friedman
Senior
Research Fellow
Hoover
Institution
434
Galvez Mall
Stanford,
CA 94305-6010
******
Dear Professor Friedman:
Amazing. From the energy represented in your letter,
time is not running out on you by any means. I was reminded that Pablo
Casals, the cellist, gave a concert at the White House at your age. So,
if we keep mentally active, good things happen, as you and Casals seem to
prove.
Your letter, Professor Friedman, is most inspiring to me, at
many levels. Thank you.
Before Harvard admitted me to graduate school in 1963, they
sent to me, then in Korea, a list 135 books to read. I must now go back
and improve their list by adding yours to my current "required
reading." I now suspect,
though, I subconsciously stole the funding idea from both you and from Prof.
Theodore Schultz. (But you will remember and perhaps forgive that Plato
asserted that ideas must be without charge, that is, free.) Ethics, of
course, requires, that we give credit where credit is due. Certainly,
your funding idea is due much credit, and will receive all due credit when
implemented and proven to a skeptical world.
As for the $52,000 cost per year per student, many factors
determined this figure:
a. If the Academy is to truly prepare
youngsters to medal at the Olympics, the Academy must identify and attract the
world's finest coaches in each sport. In some sports (gymnastics or
fencing are but two examples) there are fewer than a dozen "world
class" coaches. They are expensive to attract.
b. Great teachers, for the most part,
for purely economic reasons, have left the teaching field. To find them
and bring them back to the "academy", we have to pay at least double
the average teacher's salary.
c. Since the students must be three
hours per day in athletics or fitness training, they will have only three to
four hours per day for scholastic studies, which means that their general
education studies must be extremely efficiently delivered, which implies
expensive teaching aids and technology.
d. Each student must master the basics
of twelve languages to be truly a global citizen and be able to represent their
nation well, which implies, again, expensive teachers and teaching
methods. And, they must become reasonably competent in at least one
musical form.
e. To avoid being alienated from their
culture, each student must revisit his/her village (home) at least twice a
year; must be in touch with the parents at least weekly. This implies an
internet connection to the family.
f. Since we are investing 6 x $52,000 in
each student, we need almost iron-clad guarantees that each student is not only
intellectually and physically prepared for success, but also emotionally
prepared to sacrifice, to have the mental toughness that is prerequisite to
success, in order to repay these high costs. This implies rigorous
psychological testing before admission.
Etc.
Sorry to be so long-winded.
But you get the idea.
Would you be willing to give me an interview in Palo Alto at
a time convenient to you where I would explain the concept a bit further and,
if you are willing, pick you mind for a few moments? There is an urgency, as
you know, professor Friedman, for mankind as a whole to rethink how we fund our
educational systems. This Academy, whose details are harmonious with your
ideas and with common sense, I think, needs to enter the collective
consciousness, along with other breakthrough ideas.
I have classes on Tuesdays and Fridays this coming summer
term and thus
could come to Palo Alto for that requested interview almost
any other day.
Again, sir, thank you for your very kind and generous
comments. I am encouraged that others understood and appreciated your
revolutionary ideas whose time must now be very near.
Sincerely,
William Maxwell, Ed.D.
Professor of Thinking, University of Advancing Technology,
Tempe,
Arizona
(Cell 602-505-2909.
April 19, 2005
P.S. Next week, we are hosting Professor Edward de
Bono of Britain
("Lateral Thinking"). Have you ever met him?
W.M.