Tag: Bob Luddy

Commentary: ‘The Thales Way’ Is the Book That Can Save American Education

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Would you be interested in a book on reforming education by a man who created flourishing grade, middle, and high school charter schools, all with waiting lists today, found them too mired in government bureaucracy and so started 13 even more successful purely private campuses in 2007 — and who is willing to share his secrets of success with you?

In hiring young people for his large private business, Bob Luddy of Raleigh, North Carolina, ran head-long into the problem shared by other employers — namely, that many potential employees with a public-school education did not have the elemental skills required to hold jobs, some unable to understand basic logic or even to read.

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Thales College to Welcome Inaugural Class of Undergraduates This Fall at North Carolina Campus

Susan Berry, PhD

There’s a new private college in town – one with affordable tuition, accelerated degrees, and classical liberal arts and career-ready majors – and it will be welcoming its inaugural undergraduate students this fall at its new Wake Forest, North Carolina campus.

Thales College, founded by Bob Luddy, who also created the network of affordable private K-12 schools known as Thales Academy, said in an announcement the college’s students “will enjoy personalized mentorship and teaching from top-notch faculty, and they will benefit from our new campus home in Wake Forest, North Carolina, with Raleigh’s vast opportunities and amenities at their fingertips.”

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Thales Academy Opens First Rural County School in Pittsboro, North Carolina

Susan Berry, PhD

Thales Academy opened the doors of its brand new building in Pittsboro, North Carolina, Monday, as about 100 students from the academy’s Cary campus moved to the new facility in rural Chatham County.

“Chatham is the first time that Thales has been in a rural county,” Bob Luddy, the founder and chairman of Thales Academy, told The Star News Network. “So, my thought was having a facility of that quality in a rural county that’s a private initiative is going to change the way people think about K-12 education.”

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Biden Education Department ‘Declares War’ on Charter Schools as School Choice Becomes Overwhelmingly Popular in America

Susan Berry, PhD

As more families and teachers flee government schools, the Biden administration – bound to the teachers unions – has now “declared war” on charter schools, as Robert Maranto, editor of the Journal of School Choice, wrote at National Review Monday.

The Biden education department is now on a path to sabotage the federal grant program that funds charter schools, public schools that are privately managed, with its proposal of new rules that appear to actually deter applicants from seeking grants.

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Thales Academy Moves to Expand to Middle and High School Levels in Franklin, Tennessee

Susan Berry, PhD
aerial view of Thales Academy

Thales Academy, offering schools with a high quality private education at affordable rates, is planning to expand from its elementary school in Franklin, Tennessee, to two new buildings for the middle and high school levels.

Robert Luddy, the founder and chairman of Thales Academy, told The Star News Network the expansion in Franklin is “off to a really good start because we have one campus open.”

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VP Mike Pence and Secretary of Education Visit Thales Academy to Highlight an Example of How Schools Can Open During COVID Times

Zachery Schmidt

  Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited Thales Academy on Wednesday in Apex, North Carolina. This visit by the members of the Trump administration comes as most school districts across the country are announcing schools with limit attendance to virtual and online classes to start the upcoming school year. Thales Academy, as a school, has bucked the virtual class trend and decided that its students will be attending in-person classes this upcoming school year. “We’ve got to get our kids back to school. We’ve got to get them back this fall,” Pence said at Thales Academy, according to WRAL. “It’s best for our kids. It’s best for working families. It’s best for North Carolina and best for all of America.” While Pence was at the Thales Academy, he chatted with fourth-grade students. Fourth-grade teacher Allison Combs, the teacher of the class Pence visited, said that she is happy to be in class teaching again even with additional health measurements, according to WRAL. “Virtual learning was challenging. We made it work because that’s what we had to do,” Combs said. “But losing that interaction with students made the work even harder. … Just having those interactions…

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Thales Academy to Host Parent Interest Meeting Tuesday Night

Anthony Gockowski

Thales Academy, a college preparatory network of independent Pre-K-12 schools, will be hosting a parent interest meeting Tuesday night regarding its new campus in Franklin, Tennessee.

The informational meeting is scheduled for June 9 at 6:30 p.m. at The Gate Community Church, the address of which is: 3835 Carothers Parkway, Franklin, TN 37067. Thales Academy is a secular school and is not affiliated with The Gate Church.

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Thales Academy Offers Free Online Coursework for K-5 Students

Jordyn Pair

Thales Academy in Tennessee is offering free online learning coursework to families in the Franklin area to help offset the government-mandated shutdown of schools considering the coronavirus, the academy announced on Wednesday.

“Our mission at Thales Academy has always been to provide the highest quality education at the lowest possible cost for as many children as possible,” said Bob Luddy, founder of Thales Academy, in a statement. “We hope by offering remote learning free of charge that Franklin area families can help their children continue to grow academically during this time and experience our strong Thales Academy curriculum firsthand.”

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Parents Attend Thales Academy-Franklin Informational Meeting, Learn About the School’s High Quality, Affordable Education Option

Julie Carr

  FRANKLIN, Tennessee – A crowd of about 50 parents,  grandparents, and Tennessee Star Report All-Star panelists came out to hear first hand the announcement from Thales Academy founder Bob Luddy on Tuesday night that Thales Academy-Franklin will open its doors beginning in July of 2020, and will offer Middle Tennessee parents an affordable and high-quality education option for their children. Luddy broke the news that the campus will be located at the Gate Church on Carothers Parkway, the location of the evening’s meeting. Thales Academy has purchased the building and is beginning renovations to convert the church building to an effective home for its K-3 campus. Thales Academy-Franklin will be the first school in Tennessee added to Thales Academy’s successful roster of eight current campuses in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. Founder Bob Luddy emphasized their methodology of direct instruction (DI) Tuesday night and expressed the passion in their mission of teaching to master and creating connections for their students. When discussing what separates Thales from traditional models of schooling and how parents should see their children’s progress he stated, “You really don’t have to have any test scores or grades. If you can’t tell the difference than we’re…

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New Private School in Nashville to Stress Critical Thinking and Character Education

Chris Butler

  NASHVILLE — A new private school set to open in the Nashville area one year from now will stress, among other things, character education and innovative thinking. That school, Thales Academy, will cost less than other private schools in the Nashville area, said Director of Operations and Academics Timothy Hall. School officials will open at a temporary incubator location in July 2020 in the area, Hall said. About 50 parents came out to hear Hall and other school officials discuss their plans at an information session at Nashville’s West End Community Church Friday. “This is a private school that will cost about $6,000 a year. In the Nashville market other private schools probably cost about $12,000 – $22,000,” Hall told The Tennessee Star. “For the beginning, it’ll be K-5, maybe K-8, depending on the enrollment and how that matches out. If we have the right enrollment then we’ll create a high school and junior high school as well.” School officials are looking concurrently for both an incubator location and a location for the permanent building afterwards, Hall said. According to slides Hall and others showed parents, Thales Academy teaches critical thinking and leadership skills, and it also teaches students…

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Thales Academy, High Quality and Affordable Private School, Is Coming to Nashville

Anthony Gockowski

  Thales Academy, a non-profit company that owns and operates eight private schools in North Carolina, is coming to Nashville. Founder and CEO Bob Luddy, the entrepreneur who also owns CaptiveAire, the nation’s leading provider of commercial kitchen ventilation equipment, and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Tim Hall will be among the Thales Academy team members who will be addressing the public at an informational meeting that will be held in Nashville on Friday, July 19 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at West End Community Church, located at 235 White Bridge Pike in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public. You can confirm your attendance here. Nashville joins Richmond, Virginia as locations Thales Academy has identified for expansion in the 2020-2021 academic year. In each community, Thales Academy is working with local groups who want to give students and parents in their area the opportunity to be part of a high quality, low cost private education based on traditional Judeo-Christian values. The Thales model emphasizes Direct Instruction rather than Common Core to learn the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic for K-5 students, and a classical curriculum for 6-12 students. Direct Instruction is a teaching method that…

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Successful North Carolina Businessman Pioneers New Way Forward in Education

Anthony Gockowski

Bob Luddy had already experienced massive success as a businessman and entrepreneur before launching Thales Academy, one of North Carolina’s most innovative private schools. In 1976, Luddy founded CaptiveAire Systems, now the leading manufacturer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems in the U.S. with annual sales of more than $300 million. Why, after such success, get involved in education? “Primarily because in my life I had a reasonably good education and I realized how much it contributed to my life, and to the American way,” Luddy told Battleground State News in a recent interview. “And also within our family, my parents certainly stressed the importance of education throughout our lifetime. So in making observations after being in business for many years, I felt like too many students are deprived of the opportunity to reach their fruition in life by having a good, sound education.” And that is exactly what Luddy’s Thales Academy (Thales), now in its eleventh year and named for the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, does: educate each student to his maximum potential. Luddy launched Thales in 2007 using a “temporary facility in the back of” his corporate office, the school’s website explains, and had just 30 students. Now,…

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