You’ve heard of the School of Rock, right?

No, not that School of Rock. I’m talking about the real School of Rock. The franchise that has taken off and brought Schools of Rock to 160 locations across the world. It’s pretty important.

Seriously. It’s no secret that the education system kind of sucks and has been failing to offer classes and programs that fit the true interests and skill sets of a diverse student body. Programs like the School of Rock have worked to provide that for students outside of the traditional education settings in meaningful and engaging ways. We need our rockers just as much as we need our … whatever they’re teaching in schools these days. Mathematicians.

What we also need, however, are our engineers, our techies, and our computer programming geniuses that push forward next-level ideas. We need a School of Rock for nerds.

This October, John and Kelly Scarborough are bringing just that to Denver with the Silicon STEM Academy.

The idea for it was really born out of their own personal experience of raising a 13-year-old “tech kid” themselves who was interested in computer programming. They couldn’t identify any useful classes for their son outside of community college. Being that they didn’t want to put a 13-year-old in the community college setting, there needed to be a solution. Otherwise, he and these other kids would just have to end up stuck in their bedrooms teaching themselves about technology, which isn’t always all that effective or fun.

Image via Silicon STEM Academy

“What we really need to be doing is putting these kids in an environment where they can learn these types of things in an organized and structured approach,” John said.

“And a collaborative approach more importantly,” Kelly added. “Our goal is to get these kids out of their basements and bedrooms and into a collaborative setting.”

It’s what we really need if we want to nurture the next Mark Zuckerberg, because for them, the idea of the brilliant, self-taught entrepreneur that we make Zuckerberg out to be is kind of a myth.

“Obviously Zuckerberg is a genius,” John said, “but [when he was young] he was able to take advantage of five years of highly specialized programming, training and education. We believe that the next Zuckerberg is sitting out there—the next Einstein, the next Jobs, the next Gates. They’re definitely out there, but they require earlier exposure to technical training in order to determine their career path and passions.”  

Silicon STEM Academy is essentially aiming to be the go-to location to get that type of training and exposure—not just for kids, but for people of all ages.

“It’s really for anyone,” John said. “We’ll be expanding for adult education to utilize the facility and to create coding boot camps during the day for adult learners who want to reinvent their careers, but initially it’s going to be about middle and high-schoolers.”

Computer programming is really becoming a fundamental skill set. “Reading, writing, and programming” is what John likes to say. It’s not just a career-focused skill but a problem solving skill that the Scarborough’s believe anyone living in the 21st century will benefit from. At Silicon STEM Academy, courses will be offered from this field, from engineering to robotics to digital media and beyond.

Image via Silicon STEM Academy

These types of classes in the traditional educational setting are routinely designed for the lowest common skill level. The Scarboroughs plan to go above and beyond in provide the necessary in depth, hands on, collaborative, and engaging methods of learning in these disciplines.

“We thought, ‘Why not formalize a facility where we offer a really nice selection of these courses and a depth of courses where these kids can really pursue their passions?’” Kelly said.

Sound like something you may be interested in? The first day of classes in the program begin Oct. 12 of this year, so you still have some time to head to the Silicon STEM Academy website to explore which ones may suit the needs and interests of you or your children. If you miss enrollment, don’t fret. It sounds like the Scarboroughs are planning to stick around for a while.

“We know our education system is never going to be able to keep up with the dynamic of the technology and the tech industry as a whole,” John said. “We feel as though we’ll be able to stay in step with the changes in technology and be able to bring that faster to those tech kids in an organized healthy fun learning environment.  

“Our vision is to be able to facilitate that and expand it.”