Learn and Earn
March 1, 2004

IRVINE, CA--All the experts agree, says Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), America's students do not read, think or write enough.

As a nonprofit educational Institute ARI encourages students to read, think and write more by employing a uniquely American incentive--the profit motive. "In the last twenty years," notes Dr. Brook, "ARI has awarded almost a half million dollars in one of the largest student essay contests in the world--largest in terms of prize money and number of entries." The Ayn Rand Institute is also the largest donor of free Ayn Rand books to America's classrooms--more than 50,000 donated this year alone--and it can hardly keep up with the demand.

Each year ARI awards more than $62,000 in prizes and receives more than 16,000 essays for the three contests it conducts. The top prize is a check for $10,000 for the winning high school essay (grades 11 and 12) on Ayn Rand's thought-provoking novel The Fountainhead. The Anthem contest (grades 9 and 10) has a top prize of $2,000, and for the best essay on the ultimate thought-provoking novel, Atlas Shrugged, ARI offers a top prize of $5,000 to college students. All three contests include scores of additional monetary prizes.

These prizes are not scholarships--they are checks the students can spend on anything their hearts desire. "The purpose of education," notes Dr. Brook, "is to teach students how to think, so they can lead productive, independent and joyful lives." And if their joy is to spend $10,000 on a new car or their college tuition--either is fine with ARI. "We are all for the selfish joys and rewards of the profit motive."

Many high school teachers report that reading and studying Ayn Rand's challenging but enthralling novels have dramatically improved their student's reading, writing and critical thinking skills, "and that," says Dr. Brook, "is the ultimate prize the Ayn Rand Institute wins every year from its student essay contests."

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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please e-mail media@aynrandcenter.org

For more articles by Yaron Brook, and his bio, click here.