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VISION
The return of American secondary and higher education to the rigorous and
exclusive study of the classic academic subjects: math, science, history,
literature, language, and music. This timeless pursuit produces citizen-scholars
with the multiple skills to remain relevant, self-sufficient, and productive at
all times, in the face of any social, economic, or political trend.
MISSION To gather high school
students and drill them with the fundamental exercises that produce
citizen-scholars. Only this confers to new generations the universal
intellectual resourses -- the knowledge, skills, interests, habits, and
attitudes -- responsible for humanity's greatest advancements of technology,
prosperity, justice, politics, security, and art.
GOALS To develop those universal
intellectual recourses in high school students, so as to compel and enable them
to:
(1) Maximize the quality of their high school experience, by
selecting classes devoted to classic scholarly subjects;
(2) Maximize their
high school Grade Point Averages, by investing themselves into those
classes;
(3) Maximize the number of books that they have read, by taking
classes that require book-reading, and by adopting the pursuit of knowledge and
intellectual skills as one of their habits and sources of pride;
(4)
Maximize their standardized test scores, by fitting these tests into thei
academic activities;
(5) Maximize their university admission and scholarship
award rates by cashing in their academic achievements;
(6) Maximize the
quality of their university experience, by selecting majors devoted to classic
scholarly subjects;
(7) Maximize their college Grade Point Averages, by
applying their scholarly habits from High School.
The Lifetime Scholars Program targets African-American students for
this crusade, but welcomes everyone. We aim not just to close the negative
academics gap between African-American students and their peers, but to
overshoot the mark and establish them as the nation's academic leaders.
Our program's original name was taken with permission from the surgeon/author Ben Carson, MD. Carson
graduated from Detroit's Southwestern High School, and now serves as Chief of
Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University Hospital and School of
Medicine, where he enjoys an international reputation as a leading authority in
his field. Our program embodies and implements the values outlined in his
best-selling books, "Gifted Hands," and "Think Big." Detroit-area professionals
compose our staff, some serving as academic Coaches, others as Administrators.
Each semester we attract usually about 150 students from throughout the
Detroit-area, home of our first and only chapter.
We meet in three-hour sessions, once
a week during the school year, and four times a week during the summer. Our
activities constitute old-fashioned academic "time on task," the only method by
which anybody ever masters basic intellectual concepts.
Some of our courses focus on the SAT.
Like commercial SAT courses, ours employ real, previously administered SATs and
professional test-taking materials and strategies. But unlike commercial SAT
courses, ours intend to develop fundamental intellectual habits and skills that
form the basis of classroom success.
An increasing number of our courses exclusively
concern universal academic subjects outside the context of any standardized
testing. We regard this as our principal task.
Unlike the typical secondary school setting, our
activities are led by "subject matter experts" (they hold degrees in such core
academic disciplines as math, physics, engineering, literature, or history) who
bring assorted professional perspectives and-by virtue of their part-time,
volunteer status-fresh enthusiasm. This makes for a unique, positive complement
to the formal school setting, resulting better school course choices, grades,
test scores, and overall prospects for the future.
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