A Return to Real Education
Julian D. Michels, PhD, is a polymath scholar and educational innovator. His groundbreaking academic work is freely available at The Philosophy Archive.
Education that Inspires (ETI) was born of the conviction that nothing is more important than deep learning, and the reality that deep learning is vanishingly rare in the world of institutionalized schooling.
After serving as faculty at both international schools and university, Dr. Julian came to believe that A) the world is rapidly changing / yesterday’s institutions are not keeping pace and B) that truly creative, student-centered education is impossible within institutions whose first loyalty is conformity to existing hierarchies and power structures.
Of course, many parents and educators share these concerns. Unfortunately, most educational projects striving for a more liberated approach lose academic rigor and discipline in the process, which is a tragedy of human potential undeveloped.
Dr. Julian’s theorem: True education occupies a space of holistic rigor: the celebration of deep and disciplined learning not as obedience but as exciting self-actualization. With this in mind, ETI does not only pursue creative, student-centered learning — it does so as a fully authorized AP Capstone Diploma Program, accredited as such by the prestigious USA College Board.
Well, holistic rigor sounds good in theory. But do ETI’s methods actually work? Let’s ask our students:
Student Experiences
One of ETI’s pillars is deep reading, writing, poetry, literature, and true engagement with the humanities.
Reading and writing, for us, are not chores or simply skills — they are initiation into ancestry, knowledge, creation, and culture.
Our students don’t study to “complete their homework.” They learn to savor literature. They learn to add their voices to a conversation that extends across the ages and into the future that we are creating together with our very own minds and lives.
Tommy (15) says:
“Dear Dr. Julian,
As of writing this, I have just finished The Tombs of Atuan, and thusly the first set of our Summer reading materials!
When I started on this set of books at the beginning of Summer, I really wasn't a big reader. I would read occasionally, but it was mainly linguistic or academic writing – never really reading for pleasure or for a good story.
Over the course of reading these books though, I've noticed not only have I been able to reach deep and beautiful ideas that formerly seemed so foreign to me, but also I've been loving doing it!
The two Earthsea books have given me a whole new idea of fiction and writing in general, embedding metaphysical and deep ideas into what on the surface appear to be books about wizards. Siddhartha has given me not only beautiful-sounding text, but also has led me into contemplation of reality and this beautiful world we live in. The Dao de Jing has given me my favorite text of all time, guiding my mind towards enlightenment and happiness.
This is all to say that I've loved reading these books you've picked out, and I want to say a huge thank you for introducing me to this new passion.”
~Tommy (15)
Liz
Liz recounts the process of discovering her own voice, growing her confidence in public speaking and academics, and working with Dr. Julian in a journey from high school to becoming a scholarship student at UC Berkeley.
Huy
Huy tells of meeting Dr. Julian in a university classroom in Vietnam and discovering a kind of education that he had never seen before. He reports on how this experience transformed his thinking, his confidence, and his self-expression.
Sivani
Sivani shares about working with Dr. Julian and how it deviated from her idea of "teachers." She describes how what she found was not "teaching" but mentorship and questioning that encouraged her to go deep into her own process, to develop her own ideas, and to grow as her own person.
Our Offerings
We support young teens and tweens in falling in love with reading and writing. We use genre fiction and creative writing to build fundamental skills in organization, complex thought, creative rigor, and ELA.
An intrinsic enjoyment of good stories is a exceptional foundation of academic success.
We don’t think that good education should amount to a preparation for soulless survival inside an incoherent machine.
Education, in our view, is the awakening of true knowledge of oneself and the world — and a preparation for meaningful and creative participation in reality itself.
We prepare our students for success, yes. But more fundamentally, we prepare them for consciousness in a world that’s still waking up.
AP Exam Prep (College-Facing)
ETI is an authorized AP Capstone Diploma program including several subject-area AP courses for our college-preparatory teens.
We have years of experience working creatively with AP curricular development and supporting student success on the AP Exams.
Contact Us
We are always available to support our families.
Don’t hesitate to reach out.