The Experiment That Everyone Mocked
In 2020,LaTonya Turner, PhD, Naeem Turner-Bandele, PhD, and I, Nathaniel Turner, set out to do something people had asked us to do for years.
We created "The League of Extraordinary Parents" (LEP).
We formed LEP because parents constantly requested better options for their children. "Better" as in better educational outcomes so that their children could be better situated to achieve all their audacious hopes and dreams.
Before 2020, I'd had the privilege of speaking across the nation and sharing Backward Design with parents and educators worldwide. What those discussions surprisingly revealed was that LaTonya and I had done something other parents not only found interesting but also desired to do for their children.
We backward-designed Naeem's life before birth, using a 1994 Harvard admissions application.
The results of what at first could only be called an experiment proved hugely successful.
At the heart of backward design, then and now, is the uncompromising specificity of what we wanted for our child. The most audacious hopes and dreams were the outcome; they were the pinpoint destination that included time and navigation parameters.
In 1994, we primarily hoped that when our fetus in utero reached the point at which students begin applying to college, they would be able to submit an application to a university like Harvard and know that, at the very least, they would be worthy of consideration.
Thus, the plan was to work backward. We worked to reverse-engineer our child's educational development so that, when the time came to apply to college, his outcomes would align with the profile of an accepted Harvard student.
Saying aloud what we were doing made us seem like we had lost our minds to most people.
"So, you are planning for an unborn child to meet Harvard's academic standards, yeah, okay."
That was the kinder version of the disbelieving, condescending responses we received.
There were lots of rolling eyes when we shared our plans. There were incalculable whispers among our peers about Nate and LaTonya being out of their minds. However, we kept going because we understood something others could not acknowledge—something they couldn't understand because of the way schools and so-called experts guide parents.
The Turnaround: A GPS Destined for Success
Attending Harvard wasn't an outcome that even mattered. Getting into Harvard, given its almost infinitesimal acceptance rate, wasn't a realistic expectation either.
What mattered is that we had a distinct, GPS-like destination we could pinpoint.
What Harvard provided was a standard. It set an expectation that required us to hold ourselves accountable—a non-negotiable expectation for the well-being of our child's future. Harvard provided a clear-cut, uncompromising location, like longitude and latitude.
Nobody gets in a car, a plane, a boat, or a spaceship to take a journey to a place they've never been without a vibrant, dynamic, definitive destination they can point to on a map. You need it to show others where you are going, but, more importantly, to use it as a North Star to determine for yourself that you are heading in the right direction.
Well, almost nobody embarks on uncharted waters, that is... except most parents.
You can't correct course if you have no idea where you are going or where you are on the journey.
Schools, educators, and the like, sadly, encourage most parents to engage in their children's education in precisely that way. We trust that others know how to get our children to the destination without ever asking what destination we truly want. Hardly do we check things like:
- What destination would provide my child with the best options later in life?
- Do those looking to give guidance to my child have a track record for giving good counsel and academic guidance to their own?
Instead, we happily engage in a system that never tells us where our children are going. We engage with a system that speaks in terms like "college and career readiness" but cannot tell us which college or career our children will actually be ready for.
We essentially allow our children to get into a spaceship and meander through space, trusting that the people piloting the ship know where they are going.
To borrow from the 1970s TV show Lost in Space: "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!"
Danger, because most of the people we routinely outsource our children's future to are woefully unprepared to help themselves, much less to help our children fall upon the stars, never mind reach the moon.
Over the years, I've seen many schools and educators struggle to understand what it means to be "college and career-ready." The idea is so nebulous and ephemeral these days that most children have no chance of reaching that desired destination.
Instead of preparing children for the best colleges or the jobs of the future—which history notes always stem from excellence in critical thinking, reading, writing, math, and science from conception—we wait until the junior year of high school to decide what they are capable of.
They face limited options because we left their future in the hands of people with limited vision. Lifetime options are reduced because we did so little during the crucial foundational years of their lives.
We treat children as if their lives were expeditions where they wander haphazardly and, one day, realize it's time to make the best of wherever they find themselves. If the place they land by chance is great, then wonderful. Schools and parents pat themselves on the back for a job well done that was not well done.
On the other hand, if the place where life takes a child is not so good—which is the dreary fate for the overwhelming number of children who today graduate without proficiency in reading, writing, math, and science—we scold the children for being poor students. Schools and parents comfort themselves by saying they did the best they could, which was not at all the best they could have done.
That's what LaTonya and I fortuitously understood about 'college and career readiness' in 1994: we wanted no part of it.
So we wrote Harvard and repurposed that application along with its three key elements, which we now call:
- Intellectual Ambition
- Global and Cultural Competency
- Humanitarian Drive
Not only did that application offer incredible insight into a definitive college- and career-preparatory standard, but it also helped establish the baseline minimums for the kind of human we hoped our child would become.
The Proof: A $5,000,000 Trajectory
By age 16, Naeem met all the academic profile standards for Harvard, but had no interest in applying. He had no interest in going to college at all at that time. In 2012, as his high school classmates were preparing to return for their senior year, he pivoted, moving to Brazil to pursue his dream of playing professional soccer.
Because he had completed all but two high school classes, exceeded proficiency in core subjects, mastered four languages, and already earned 33 college credits, he was able to go where so few children get to go, in relentless pursuit of an audacious dream. He could pursue his dream because he had benefited from firmly established academic standards and personal values to uphold.
It was then that the folks who thought we were out of our minds suddenly began to think we just might be "crazy like foxes."
Leaving Brazil due to a severe concussion, Naeem went on to earn admission to 27 of America's best schools.
The schools offered him financial awards, including full and partial scholarships totaling more than $5,000,000. He earned:
- A BS in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University
- A PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (Full Fellowship)
- An MBA in Finance from NYU Stern (Full Scholarship)
That little experiment in 1994 paid off big time. Not only did it save us nearly $2 million in out-of-pocket educational costs and help him avoid crushing student debt, but it also set the stage for us to help other families do the same or more.
Your Invitation to the League
This is how we brought the League of Extraordinary Parents to life.
LEP is the outward manifestation of the love we had for an unborn child. It is a clear, present, modeled demonstration for parents of what is possible when you honestly know what true subject-matter proficiency looks like.
No longer are people snickering at us or looking at us like we have two heads. Instead, they ask: "Can you do the same thing for my child? Can you show me how to do this?"
The answer remains a resounding yes and yes.
You can do for your child what we imagined for Naeem, or more. When you join the League of Extraordinary Parents, you get the "Life Template"—all the tools, techniques, and strategies to set the destination for where you want your child to go and who you want them to be.
With LEP on your side, you no longer have to settle for others driving your child's future without any rhyme or reason.
The spaceship is on the launchpad. You get to decide who pilots it.
If you have audacious hopes and dreams for your child and you refuse to leave their trajectory to chance, stop waiting. Don't wait another day. Don't waste another second.
Your child's future depends on moving beyond outdated teaching and traditional school systems that delay and often deny preparation. Take the wheel right now to make sure your child is verifiably at the highest standard, college- and career-ready.
👉 Join the League of Extraordinary Parents today and claim your 'Life Template Starter Kit.' Let's map out your child's definitive destination together.