Diogenes puts words to a fantasy I have long had myself:

Here's my idea. I'd like to take some of the kids that "no one wants" and set up a year-round boarding school out in the countryside somewhere. I'm sure some wealthy benefactor would be happy to pony up the endowment. (NOTE TO BENEFACTOR: if you're reading this, drop me a line) I'd start with a classical curriculum (you wouldn't have to, I'm just partial) I'd hire humanities instructors from the vast pool of recent desperate English, History, and Classics PhD grads (after giving them a summer training course led by experienced inner-city educators).They'd have the ability to keep publishing, and pay comparable to a prof's salary. Then I could pick up math and science teachers from the tech-boom casualties. The structure of the school would be a cross between the conventional preppy boarding school model, and the top public magnet schools. Perhaps I'd rope in a martial element a la Josiah Bunting.

You'd get them at a young age, put them in a nurturing environment, and hold them to exceptionally high standards. It would WORK. ...anybody want a school named after them?

It's not just that this is a way to rescue otherwise doomed inner-city kids, but that it is also a much better use of a Ph.D. than your average academic career is. Everybody wins, if this dream can come true. That I'm not the only one dreaming it suggests that maybe, just maybe, it will.

If an opportunity to teach in such a school were presented to me, I would be hard-pressed to say no.