Existential threats abound. Many well-off high school students rely on tutors for AP, IB, or GSE exams. Tutors expertly teach pattern recognition and “key words” rather than the far more complicated task of either thinking or creating.. In addition to mastering empty tests, these students chase equally barren branded extracurricular activities; nothing authentically compassionate, intelligent, or creative, or even quaintly idiosyncratic. Students learn to rattle of their test scores and GPAs but cannot tell anyone a single original idea or a courageous act they have taken in their stunted lives. The $72 billion per year test industry grows but the students seem to shrink. Test reinforce embracing meaningless reward punishment systems, enduring boredom, and sublimating more authentic passions for those that appease authorities. But who teaches students the fortitude to cope with collapsing paradigms and the ever intensifying myriad of existential threats? Video games and post apocalyptic movies?
Cuba is an antidote to this. Cuban kids do things far more from passion than for profit or fear. Because of this, again and again, Cuba produces World class musicians, dancers, and athletes from some of the poorest schools in the world. I donated some drums to a Music school because they literally had to borrow drums from a neighboring school. This combination of poverty and passion create what is known as ganas or will.
Not surprisingly, top schools, like applications from people who make the most of every opportunity. This is in marked contrast to kids whose only achievement two dimensional tests (preferably multiple choice. Our camp allows kids to catch up with Cubans in terms of skills and maturity in a safe environment that has some structure but also lots of space for creativity.
But this isn’t just a sports/art camp/ or a “save the poor (save the rich!)” camp. We spend 3 hours a day around a Harkness table discussing and writing about original texts. We not only read these books we understand their political, economic, and cultural context. In reading “All Quiet On The Western Front” we read about Romanticism, German Expressionism, New Objectivity, and even the political context of Pre WW1 Germany and the Weimar republic. It is not about fast, it is about deep and this goes far beyond even the Harkness style learning.
We also focus on more social science and social theory than pure literature (No “To kill a Mockingbird” . We read thinkers like Dunning-Kruger, Nietzsche, Foucault, Jared Diamond, Adorno, Malcom Gladwell, Marx, Choamsky in the original texts. We do it slowly and carefully so that even younger students can begin to grasp these thinkers. Strangely, many kids like hard books. They understand the barren legacy of most school curriculums.
Dr. Robert Clyne
Having lived in over 50 countries and managing various NGOs in the international development space in Africa upon finishing his PhD from Yale there, Dr. Clyne is recognized as a formidable education and performance coach the past 20 years..
I am a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, Stanford University, and I received my Ph.D. from Yale. I have spent 10 years in Africa, two in Nigeria during the Biafran war, and ten years in Latin America including 4 years in Nicaragua during the Sandinista revolution. Both taught me how quickly a society can collapse. We are now undergoing on the macrolevel what I already experienced on the microlevel.
In addition, I was part of the last generation at Exter that did not take any form of test seriously! Standardized tests had not become the multi-billion dollar business they are today and although Phillips Exeter Academy was one of the founders of the AP Exeter abandoned it realizing that great teachers are always better than any standardized curriculum. In my day Exeter had no mid-term or final exams so little selection for “test jockeys”. Up to 50% of grade could be based on class participation and the rest on research or creative writing. Close to zero memorization! I cannot vouch for that today but it my approach in Cuba must be more extreme to reverse the brain numbing effects of students trained to juke tests, endure boredom, and hunt empty brands.
Boxing empowers kids with discipline, confidence, and self-defense skills, building mental and physical toughness for life’s challenges. Our summer course teaches these invaluable skills while improving fitness, and coordination.
Unlock your potential at our Summer Camp, where critical thinking skills are honed to prepare you for the rigorous demands of elite college academics. Develop the ability to analyze, question, and solve complex problems—key skills that top universities value in scholars.
Critical thinking, creativity, bioremediation, cross cultural communication, combat sports, African religion, and combat sports - these are just some of these things our students experience in an intense purposeful 6-week program.
