Would Education Marketing that Succeeded
in the Past Still Work Today?

Harry Pollard

[Reprinted from a Faculty-Lounge discussion, 6 December, 2008]

HARRY POLLARD: ... When enrolling my first classes in Toronto and Los Angeles I would say something like "Some of you may lead classes like this in the near future. You will enjoy a real understanding of how things are from attending this class, but nothing will raise your understanding like teaching a class of interested people like yourselves. It's a wonderful experience and a lot of fun." You'll recall we had so many teachers we wouldn't let them teach. ED DODSON: Hmmm... It has been awhile since you stopped the adult program. Why was it that your students-become-teachers did not continue with the adult program? Or, if they did and could not sustain it, this suggests that the success you achieved had more to do with your involvement than with the nature of the process. Yes? No? HARRY POLLARD: Of course everything has changed. None of it would work now. Or would it? All you need are 10-20 fee-paying students for 30 sessions and you'll have your "steel hardened cadre". ED DODSON: Which raises the same question, Harry: what happened to that steel hardened cadre?

I fear the problem was the Henry George School.

When I went to Los Angeles, I left the Toronto School in the capable hands of Jim Ramsey - perhaps the best Socratic teacher I've known. He carried on in my footsteps but with ideas of his own that were good. The large ad sheet I showed in Kansas City showing a breakdown of results and a different style of advertising was Jim's.

Unfortunately, after a year or two of continuing success, Jim had to leave for Calgary where he pumped up the School's activities there, but then came to an untimely end at a relatively young age.

I had two good choices to replace him, Peter Van Meggelin and Peter Thiesen, both with a number of years of experience with the School. They were Senior Tutors, and active Board members. However, I was never asked for my suggestions or advice - even though I had been in Toronto for eight years and was responsible for its regeneration. All this was going on and I was completely unaware of it, something that would never have happened in a well run corporation.

I would have gone to Toronto and recruited my preferred choices (perhaps both) or found another from a very good bunch of first-class Georgists.

Someone called Laurie Mannell was appointed Director. Haven't a clue who he is - perhaps a new graduate - but I received a letter from him at a much later date saying that no-one liked me but they all worked with me, whereas everyone liked him but they wouldn't do anything for him.

(I think they resented the fact that I had deserted them.)

Then, a perennial School problem arose. An enthusiastic Alumni Group member (or members) decided that a 'practical' demonstration should be carried out rather than boring class work. They would then persuade the Provincial government to change its direction.

They chose Port Credit a town just South of Toronto and proceeded to do sales ratio studies, produce lots of maps and so on. As far as I know, class work simply sagged or stopped all together - along with the many activities in the community.

As can be expected not much happened from the Port Credit project, though John Fisher did some good things in his local community, I understand.

In Los Angeles, things were somewhat different. Our classes were soon taught by graduates who were also well represented on the Board.

However, back in 1970, I had written a series of 8 Mini-Units that could be used in practically any subject taught from 6th grade upward.

They provided some basic George and moved students up to where they found that land was different from other things and that land speculation produced problems. Didn't give a solution (which would have made them propaganda).

I suppose some hundreds of thousands of students have enjoyed all or part of this series. (I stopped counting at 85,000 in the early 70's.)

However, I had changed the thrust of the School somewhat as I became involved with Social Studies teachers in California and exhibited at their conferences. Not to push Henry George, but to publicize the School and the Basic Minis.

Then Bret Barker, who had suffered a lunch with Bob Scrofani on one side and me on the other (Bob gave him a P&P) decided he would like to teach Economics. He had been teaching history.

By now, I had written a long course for adults classes in order to break away from the rigid four Books syllabus as Lindy has just done (and I believe you also). In fact, in the re-write, we grab from the Science of Political Economy for the first couple of pages.

I now turned this into what became the present InterStudent Program for High School Seniors complete with all kinds of antics. I say antics for the major reasons for my success on radio were the gimmicks I came up with. This is perhaps my only talent.

My major first antic for the InterStudent program was to encourage spying, lying, and cheating (with a higher grade for inspired cheating). Yet, the Interstudent classes were certainly the only rooms in the school where cheating wasn't taking place.

Meantime, we had run into Library budget problems that made continuing classes in them difficult, so I turned away from them and other Alumni Group activities to concentrate entirely on entering Public Schools - something known by all of us to be impossible.

Bret and I made the thing work and we recruited a number of schools. I found a problem right away. Teachers were reassigned away from Economics, or were promoted into the bureaucracy, or retired, or got sick and left teaching. So, we had to keep recruiting to stay ahead.

However, Connie in New York wasn't impressed and reduced our allowance from the larger amount you had arranged for us and the program began to wind down. Exhibiting at conferences - local, state, and national - costs money.

However, we have picked up a couple of new Schools by recommendation over the last few years - also lost a couple. As you know, the numbers work out as follows.

A new teacher teaching InterStudent Economics will have five classes of perhaps 35 students in each of two semesters. That's 350 students who do some 80 hours of class work plus homework time.

An HGS student who completes all three courses will do 60 hours. Yet, we have been thinking in terms of 5 sessions - 10 hours. Or, short sessions of 90 minutes, or one day seminars.

I think it's the wrong way to go.

I once told Bob Clancy that our Basic Course is essentially an introduction to land-value taxation rather than an economics class. He disagreed, of course, but this was a problem I faced when I produced InterStudent. I needed to remove the advocacy and make it a scientific inquiry into the production and distribution of wealth, the problems that arise, and the way to handle them.

Well, that's what Henry did - and I think magnificently. But, I suspect the only venue where this is happening is at the Institute, where students must read the books.

Anyway, Ed, that's the story. But it isn't all misery.

As you know, we have begun teaching AP Economics. Advanced Placement students are the cream of the crop - destined for college. Wonderful Bret, who landed himself in a new world of neo-Classical economics has been having kittens trying to do both InterStudent and the AP syllabus over a full year. He seems to have a handle on it and he is getting better all the time.

I don't much care about accreditation, but do want the School of become a "School of Classical Political Economy" to take its place beside other economic schools. We will never do this if we limit ourselves to pushing land-value taxation. We have to use Henry's entire philosophy, we should follow his methods of thinking (which are superb) and we must be sure our disagreements are openly discussed. Above all, we must publicize our predictions - the way we see things are going.