The Gotham Academy

(fm the BC thread "Jobs")

marie claude,
(who thought I was fluent in French)

Regrettably moi can pas parlez.

If I ever had the money to build my dream school I would keep the kids in class at least 8 hours a day over 210 days a year and spend at least a third to half of that time on language studies. It is my regret that I do not have language skills and I think that an educated person should know, and I mean really know as a tool, English, Latin, Greek, German (for the science texts), Japanese, Hebrew and one more Romance and one non-Romance language. Sorry to disappoint but my ideal would be Italian (for the opera) or Portuguese (for future commercial opportunities) and Chinese but I can understand arguments for other choices. Each language module would be a 25 minute session every day for a total of 400 hours per language over 4 years.

For the rest I would have 3/4 hour a day each for History, Math, Science, Arts, Engineering/Practical Arts, and Athletics. This should keep people busy from 7:30 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon. The atmosphere would be deliberately old fashioned and the intent would be to focus on learning, not holistic ego empowerment. The faculty should be retired professionals who would be paid next to nothing but who would be allowed to actually teach.

Now how to marshal the resources to do this in a setting where the government is kept out of the loop? I even have thought of the name of the place since it would draw on the resources of my small hometown. It is a great dream.