The History of Great Men

Every high school in the country should have a course called "The History of Great Men".  This course should pick a handful of men whose achievements are profound.  Men from a variety of disciplines and arts.  And, of course, by "Men", I mean women too.

The course would have these simple goals:

NUMBER 1: Inspire every student to want to make greatness the pursuit of their life. 

Too many high schoolers and Americans and people in general don't know what to do with themselves.  That's good, of course.  How else do you throw off your bowlines and experiment with ideas, arts, possibilities?  But what's UNACCEPTABLE is that too many people do not make greatness the pursuit of their life.  You may not know what you want to do, but you should know you want to make it great.

NUMBER 2: Identify patterns in thinking, behavior, and circumstance among these great men.  That you can emulate them.

In this way, the course would not focus on these men's historical achievements or significance, like so many history courses attempt to.  NO, fuck that!  That doesn't actual teach you how to do anything*.  Rather, the course would give students practical advice about what patterns of behavior lead to what outcome.

This blog post was inspired by Adam Gries who forced me to read Think and Grow Rich.  Every human being who aspires to do anything should read that book.  Buy it here.

*OK, that's hyperbole.