My "memory" of learning involved lots of mental work followed by a steep Forgetting Curve. I'm sure textbooks tried to reinforce prior knowledge, but a significant amount of my academic work was a "single exposure" experience. I was one of the "lucky ones" in that my memory was "good enough" for me to be academically successful. But, it was my journey to learn Spanish, followed by an amazingly successful implementation of Timed Repetitive Quizzes (TRQs) in my college chemistry courses, that revealed the value of a solid foundation for the "rest of the class." Higher-order thinking was no longer limited to students with great memories - the rest of the class could do it too. To minimize the loss of knowledge that happens over time, cracks must be repaired and layers of new knowledge added . . . this is required academic work for a scholar.

I will be the first to admit that building a foundation is strenuous work, and not very enjoyable. However, I have found a lot of satisfaction in the "maintaining and reinforcing" work. It is quite enjoyable to return to the foundation after a period of time and realize that you still know most of the information . . . . it has become Your Knowledge . . . Your Long-term Memory. Your academic effort has created something that is lasting.

Back to the strenuous task of foundation building . . . . when students are presented with small tasks that they can do, the work is not "too hard" and the task is not overwhelming. Add a "check mark" for each completed task ✓ and you have the Let's Go learning system . . . . Learner-engaged, Time-spaced, Goal-oriented. The Let's Go approach targets those students that need to work harder and longer at learning by giving them small knowledge-acquiring steps that they can do . . . and redo . . . to achieve the same foundation as the "lucky ones". To my surprise, the "lucky ones" performed better with the Let's Go approach due an even stronger foundation.

 Let's Go 
Why an online curriculum?
1. Timed Repetitive Quizzes (TRQs) - are the foundation and framework of the Let's Go approach. They are a time-intensive component of the curriculum that is delivered and automatically graded as an online assignment.
2. Cost - a high-quality, cost-effective education will make the private school option accessible to more students in America. Equally important was our desire to create a curriculum that can be "exported" to impoverished Child Scholars in developing countries without expensive infrastructure and staff. The Let's Go curriculum can be supported by two teachers for every 100 students.

The Let's Go assignments:
• TRQs build and maintain the foundation. They are the missing ingredient in guided learning. Student's unstructured, unmonitored study time has been transformed into structured and monitored assignments - TRQ assignments. Every student can complete every TRQ assignment because they only contain information at the most basic level of cognitive thought - the foundation level. With a solid foundation guaranteed, students can easily build upon the knowledge and be successful in the guided learning environment of a Scholars Academy.
• Videos (5 min) introduce and conclude each learning module in each subject.
• Tutorials provide safe practice for complex thinking in math and science. Students must successfully complete the interactive tutorial to receive completion credit . . . they can restart the tutorial as often as needed.
• Problems present complex thinking opportunities to students. After each incorrect answer, part of the solution is displayed as either text or video to guide the student's thoughts toward the correct answer.
• Virtual labs for the sciences give students practice prior to the in-person lab and reinforce essential concepts after an in-person lab. The virtual labs are written in HTML5 and Javascript for interactivity and the ability to make the experience unique for each student.

• Memorization of poetry, speeches and Bible verses begins in the safe virtual classroom using the tool to the right. To begin, students memorize the first 5 - 10 words and click the Begin button. They then enter (keyboard or button) the first letter of the word . . . the whole word is automatically entered by the program in green or red based on its correctness. Give it a try . . . . enter  fgsltw . The student restarts the assignment as many times as needed to enter completely correct text. After a few days of working on a passage virtually, the student will recite the passage for a parent/guardian and receive a ✓. Next, they will recite the passage for a classmate and receive a ✓. Passages that have been memorized will re-appear on the assignment list for continous review. With the planned reviews, students will be able to recite assigned passages (125 Bible verses, speeches and poetry) from 7^th - 12^th grade when they graduate from a Scholars Academy.
• Tests are administered online. Essay responses are graded by the teacher using an online grading portal . . . . the rest is graded automatically. Tests are viewed as learning opportunities and learning motivators. I have found that students work harder and learn more when they are given a pool of test questions from which the actual test will be generated. The test pool contains 5-10 questions for every test question.
• Writing is an effective critical thinking exercise that will be assigned across the Let's Go curriculum.

 Teachers 
The strengths of the two teachers should be matched so they can tutor and grade in the various academic areas. The two teachers will . . . • Grade essays from homework and tests.
• Grade writing assignments.
• Teach a class that has not been placed online.
• Tutor / assist students who need help.


 A Day at Scholars Academy 
The day begins with a devotional time followed by four 50-minute periods where students will complete assignments (types listed above) in the various subjects. Our experience with the Learner-engaged, Time-spaced, Goal-oriented curriculum convinces us that 3.5 hours of non-writing academic work will produce students that excel at the highest levels. In fact, 3.5 hours of concentrated active-learning both exceeds the learning of most typical class days and approaches the limits of mental work for the day. Writing assignments will be completed outside of class as they require deeper thought and more time. After lunch is a critical thinking class . . .

While critical thinking will become possible in each academic area once the foundation and supporting pillars have been created, the opportunity to critcally think is immediately possible with certain games where the number of "rules" is small and can be learned quickly. For example, it takes a very short time to learn the movements of chess pieces (Connectors), but the Connections one can make to "win" the game require intense critical thinking. A single critical thinking game will be played by the entire school for 1 hour each day for 1-3 weeks. Examples of the types of games that may be used are . . . • Chess
• Card games - Rook, Spades, Hearts, etc.
• Word creation games - Scrabble, Wordle, WordSwipe, etc.
• Sudoku
• Stratego
• Minesweeper
• and many more . . . Each game series will conclude with a fun, school-wide, voluntary competition. We will use these games to teach students that critical thinking is simply

"the resolve to keep the wheels turning to improve an outcome." It is our hope that these daily exercises in critical thought will become a learned response that Scholar Academy students will instinctively activate throughout their life.

The 6^th period is an elective class where students will select an academic area of interest to them. They will use this class period to prepare for a competition like the Math Olympiad, Science Olympiad, Chemistry Olympiad, Constitution Bowl, History Bowl, Bible Bee, Foreign Language, Writing (short story, poetry), Programming, Webpage design, etc. If a competition does not currently exist, a competition will be developed as a school-sponsored event that can be local or open to other Scholars Academies.

 Homework 
Our goal is that the Let's Go assignments in Periods 1- 4 will be completed before lunch by at least two-thirds of the students that are focused and engaged. Any assigments not completed can be finished during lunch or as homework. Test preparation and writing assignments complete the homework expectation of a Scholars Academy student.

 Repetition 
Keeping information in the "learned state" through repetition is a focus of the Let's Go approach. Memorized passages and TRQ content will periodically appear in the student's assignment list. We are committed to maintaining the TRQ foundation because it is key to the strength of the entire structure. For content that is not specifically reinforced in a later grade, time will be devoted to maintaining that section of the foundation. For example, 7^th grade American History content is maintained as part of the 8^th and 9^th grade history curriculum. Each student's missed questions record will be used to generate TRQ quizzes containing the information that the student needs to review. We expect that a graduating senior can correctly answer more than 80% of the expected 100,000 TRQ questions.