Bronze Doors Academy opens in Austin next week

My friend Ariel Miller and I are opening the Bronze Doors Academy in Austin, with classes starting Aug. 31, 2011.  It is:

A college prep, liberal arts program for junior high and high school. Available full time or course-by-course for homeschoolers.

Lorenzo Ghiberti's Bronze Doors

 Why can’t young people have cool, interesting liberal arts courses instead of the nightmarishly dull standard fare offered in grades 7-12?

The name of the school comes from this passage in Be the Solution:  How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems:

The Tibetan Buddhists, who have seen as much deliberate destruction of their lives and their culture than almost any people on the planet, are committed to a 500-year plan to create a better world. While most of us believe that it won’t take 500 years, sometimes it is worth thinking about what you as an individual can achieve over the course of a lifetime. The Renaissance artist Lorenzo Ghiberti is famous for completing two sets of bronze doors in his life. The first set took him 21 years to complete. The second set took him 27 years to complete. Each door is covered with amazingly beautiful and detailed sculpture, doors that will be famous for as long as they exist. In our world in which life moves so quickly it is worth reflecting on the kind of commitment to excellence that could motivate someone to spend the first half his life perfecting a set of bronze doors (he started on them when he was 21), and then, when finished, to spend the second half of his life on a second set.

What if you committed yourself to making a powerful difference in the world over the course of your lifetime? Realize that making a difference is not about a feeling that you have now, but a focus on doing good and a commitment to personal excellence that you make for the long haul. You may not know exactly what your contribution is and you may have a number of different ones. As long as you develop your abilities and apply them on behalf of doing serious work for good, you will create your own bronze doors. The historical record shows that the world has become more peaceful, more prosperous, more environmentally healthy, and more comfortable than it was in the past. What can you do to create a better world over the course of your lifetime? What will your “bronze doors” be?

May Bronze Doors be a contribution to ending the world of “school” as we know it.