What is the purpose of your organization? The primary purpose of the Polymath Foundation is to establish an interdisciplinary educational university that trains polymaths rather than specialists. In so doing, our ultimate goal is to spark a renaissance of creativity and innovation: a handful of polymaths naturally dominate each era, but never before have so many been trained on this scale. Once this institution is founded, we plan to institute similar initiatives in primary and secondary education and to promote awareness of existing interdisciplinary pedagogical ideologies, such as Waldorf education, on this level.

How is your proposed institution different from established universities? We encourage students to learn many different subjects, then tie principles from those subjects together to create new ideas. As a consequence of this, our curriculum will be modular: driven by student goals and large-scale projects that result in real-world achievements, rather than confined to an individual area of study. The disciplines students study will either relate to their projects or will conform to their preferences. We will also strive to provide students with leadership development opportunities (but not requirements) on campus, in the workplace, and in their communities. We ultimately hope to involve students in the university's operations, branding, and policymaking as well, making our institution truly student-run. To summarize, our university is different because it is student-centric. University is a stage during which many students are first treated as adults. We intend to go a bit further: treating students as mature, purpose-driven individuals with unique individual aspirations and boundless potential to attain them.

So you're proposing to teach everyone everything? No, that is unfortunately impossible. We propose to break down the barriers separating disciplines, however, and allow students to cross-cut and integrate. We're fostering both convergent and divergent modes of thought, particularly as applied to leadership and creativity. We primarily emphasize the creation and application of ideas. After all, what is commonly referred to as “genius” is merely a collection of original, paradigm-shifting ideas and sufficient ability to fully express them. That's all it takes!

Students aren't mature enough to know their own goals at that stage of their lives! Some are - and from their biographies, it's clear that Franklin and Jefferson, da Vinci and Aristotle, Einstein and Newton were! Those who are not will either identify their goals rapidly (which is doing them a great service) or will be swiftly weeded out by the necessity of choice inherent in the curriculum. Not everyone will benefit from our program. That's ok - the existing model serves some students well and isn't going anywhere.

So it's a school for undecided majors? No, it is the exact opposite! The undecided major was created to allow students time to identify a purpose to latch onto, on the premise that no such purpose exists at the time of enrollment. Polymaths, modern and historical, are not only guided, but defined by a purpose that spans disciplinary bounds, often identified at a young age and adhered to very strongly. They have a very clear idea of what they wish to accomplish; it just does not fit neatly within the confines of a single field.