As you have a right to your property, so you have property in your rights.
In a 1792 essay titled “On Property,” James Madison offered an insightful and comprehensive definition of property, from which we quote at length:
– In its larger and juster meaning, [property] embraces everything to which a man may attach a value and have a right; and which leaves to everyone else the like advantage.
– In the former sense, a man’s land, or merchandize, or money is called his property.
– In the latter sense, a man has a property in his opinions and the free communication of them.
– He has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them.
– He has a property very dear to him in the safety and liberty of his person.
– He has an equal property in the free use of his faculties and free choice of the objects on which to employ them.
– In a word, as a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.
A person’s property, in other words, certainly includes external physical objects, such as someone’s house, car, and cash. Property also extends to a person’s body and the safety of it, as well as one’s labor and his religious opinions and his freedom of speech.
Your property is everything that is rightfully yours. In this enlarged understanding of property, the term is synonymous with liberty, and life—both of which are forms of property, very precious property. Where people are fully protected in their property rights, their life and liberty are secure.
As Madison concludes, the right to property is important. The very concept of rights implies and requires the idea of property: You have a natural right to property and, simultaneously, your individual natural rights are your property. They belong to you, and no other human being. At a fundamental level, property and natural rights are synonymous.
FAQ
No. Waypoints is not a lesson-plan warehouse. It is a curated library of primary sources paired with tutorials that deepen content knowledge and strengthen instruction. There are no student-facing lesson-plans; there are tutorials for teachers. For teachers, Waypoints is more like graduate school than a set of prepared lesson plans.
The Home Plan is ideal for individual learners and homeschooling families.
Organizer and Educator accounts can access the tutorials. Student accounts cannot.
Waypoints is a digital platform for learning and teaching built around beautifully published Primary Source Documents and Teacher Tutorials that reinforce selected Key Ideas of Liberty.
The Home Plan is $199 per year and includes an Organizer account, up to two Educator accounts, and up to four Student accounts.
Yes. Many people use the Home Plan simply for their own access to the Library and Tutorials. If you are a lifelong learner, the Home Plan is for you.
No. The purchase process automatically creates your Organizer account, which includes full access to all Waypoints content.
A Custom Plan is for schools, organizations, or other users whose needs are not fully met by a Home Plan or an Academy Plan. It can include a tailored combination of Educator and Student accounts. Please contact us for a Custom Plan proposal.
Student accounts can access the Library of primary source documents.
Yes, please do! We encourage teachers to use Tutorial content, written or video, any way they find helpful.
The Academy Plan is designed for schools, school districts, and other educational organizations.
For schools and districts, pricing is based on student enrollment. For non-school organizations and businesses, pricing is based on membership or staff size.
Please use the Contact Us page to discuss pricing, onboarding, and implementation.
Educators receive tutorials that illuminate the documents, deepen subject-matter knowledge, and support stronger classroom instruction.
You can go to the Waypoints Library and see the list of titles we have curated stretching across subjects such as American history, political thought, philosophy, economics, and citizenship.
Not yet. Additional titles are being prepared and published on a rolling basis. We will let members know when as more documents are published and uploaded to the Library.
Yes. Waypoints is designed to enrich and elevate existing instruction, especially in history, civics, government, and related courses. A teacher does not need to abandon the textbooks, lesson plans, or other curricula materials that have been used for past instruction. Waypoints is designed as an add-on to the materials teachers have been using and assigning to students.
