ooooooo LSI Public Programs

Everyone should do all in his power to collect and disseminate the truth, in hope that truth may find a place in history and descend to posterity. History is not the relating of campaigns, and battles, and generals and other individuals, but that which shows principles.

R.E. Lee

LSI offers two types of public programs---Institutes and Hedge Schools. Dozens of these have been held in the thirteen Confederate States. Hundreds of students of all ages have testified to their outstanding value as learning experiences. Special programs can also be arranged.

The week-long Summer Institute has been held since 1995, bringing together half a dozen or more scholars to lecture on selected topics in Southern history and culture. The videotapes listed under "Educational Resources" on this site are products of these Institutes.

In addition, for several years short summer Institutes have been held in Macon, Baton Rouge, and Austin, beginning on Thursday evenings and lasting through Saturday afternoons. These are usually taught by three League scholars. Hedge Schools, usually held on Saturday, are another aspect of LSI's outreach. Hedge School was the name applied to the clandestine schools operated by the Irish, which turned out excellent students and allowed the preservation of their culture and language when they were forbidden by the British occupiers.

LSI can usually make the services of one or more League scholars available for Saturday programs. All that is needed is an active local organizer who will bring together an audience and a place for the day. Topics offered range vastly:

Historical: The Real Lincoln, John C. Calhoun, Economic Causes of the War for Southern Independence, Reconstruction, and many others.
Constitutional: Secession, State Rights, 14th Amendment and others.
Cultural: William Gilmore Simms, William Faulkner and numerous other Southern writers.
Philosophical and Theological: Richard Weaver, Robert Lewis Dabney, and others.

And in recent years the Hedge School concept has been expanded to cover arts and crafts (Edgefield pottery, for instance), hands-on agarian living and other group activities. Schools attract everyone from high school students to retirees and every thing in between, but are perhaps most valuable for school teachers, homeschoolers, and college students. In some instances Hedge Schools have been designed especially for ladies and for school-age children.

The public programs of LSI are designed to meet a genuine demand among the Southern people for true knowledge of their heritage. If this generation does not make our heritage secure it will be gone with the wind, and our descendants, and the world, will be will be impoverished.