Google wants to use some of its money to put a few really innovative ideas into motion which will change the world for the better. So they solicited for people to submit their best ideas along these lines for a contest. Now that the entry deadline is passed, I thought I might share with you readers my submission to the google 10 to the 100th project.

Briefly describe your idea

short Philosophy/entrepreneurship vocational school

medium Found a new kind of college/vocational school which caters to gifted students and puts an emphasis on philosophy and entrepreneurship.

long The field of philosophy in previous centuries encompassed all of intellectualism. In this first decade of the 21st century, all of its teachings have been relegated to one department at colleges and universities. And what people call "philosophy" today, is primarily a study of this ancient literature which these intellectuals of other eras wrote. I believe that this turn of events would break the heart of those ancient philosophers if they were around to see it. I would like to see a new form of community or vocational college instituted which would draw gifted young people - those who like to think independently and critically about things, those who look at the patterns of the world around them and seek to put the puzzles together themselves. I think that one could invite philosophy, art, music, and hi-tech professors from other colleges to become the entire teaching staff of this college. This college would take the montesorri ethic of primary schooling up a few notches to the college level. This college would teach entrepreneurial skills, such as how to start your own small internet business; it would teach web design, graphic design, and computer programming. It would teach public speaking skills. It would teach visual art, performance art, and music. All the avenues of communicating and seeking to employ new fresh, and exciting creative ideas would be explored by the curriculum. When young people graduated from this college, they would have the skills to know how to network socially to find others to work with and to find people to help fund their projects. They would have all the skills they need to start their own internet-based business without any capital, and pull in a reasonable income for themselves.

What problem are you trying to address?

The problem I see, is that gifted and intellectually oriented young people in the usa today are not well served by the typical college/university curriculum. To tell a person who has a passion for thinking critically and independently about things to sit down and absorb all the current models from a certain intellectual field, both correct and incorrect ones, and then regurgitate them in a multiple choice test is something such a young person balks at. History tells us of many innovative folks who were either home schooled or dropped out of formal education early on. Examples of such folks:

Thomas Edison

Henry Ford

Michael Faraday

George Washington

Walt Whitman

Wilbur Wright & Orville Wright

Walt Disney

Abraham Lincoln

Norman Rockwell

Andrew Carnegie

Christopher Columbus

Benjamin Franklin

I think the reason for this, is that traditional education techniques are not usually well suited to innovative thinkers.

Who would benefit?

Everyone would benefit. If you nurture and take care of gifted young people, more of them will come to fruition in their lives. They won't be stuck working seasonal jobs in order to reserve time for themselves to write and think. They won't become socially inept, in the way that many geniuses are known to be, today. They won't live their lives in poverty. They won't be handing out all their ideas over through their blogs/internet discussions for others to do, who actually have the resources - people who do not understand the ideas, and who end up implementing the notions poorly. If one takes care of this gifted segment of young people... then those people's ideas and insights will be given wings to go out and help the world, in much the same way as this 10¹ºº project is doing. Basically, I'm asking you to expand your project exponentially.

What initial steps would be done to set up the project?

• Gather funding
• Purchase or rent classroom space
• Send out a bulletin about this agenda to colleges across north america, asking for interested teachers and professors to submit resumes
• Have the philosophically-minded folks who respond to this invitation draw up a charter, and sketch out a vision for the school's mission
• Design a curriculum, considering (1) all the different types of students who would be interested in attending this kind of college. What would each group seek to get out of the experience, by the time they are finished at the school? and (2) the various skill sets of those who have been hired to work at the school.
• Explore ways of finding grant moneys and other financial-aid for students.
• Publicize this school broadly, and also specifically inform those in the private sector who would be interested in netting the students for employment once they are done with the program.

What would be the optimal outcome?

The optimal outcome would be that a school would be founded - first as a vocational institution... but eventually it would gain accreditation to give out standard Associate degrees. Like the Montesorri ethic of teaching children, this vision itself would catch on and become popular - and would spawn many other new colleges around the world which would have this same ethic and vision of catering to this specific set of gifted young people in a similar manner. The students from the program, after they graduate, would form organizations which allow them to draw on each other's skills, and work on projects together. They would each go on to live up to their own aspirations. Some would go on to traditional four year universities.