Eagle Academy

Fifteen-year-old George Peterson applied to Eagle Academy to escape the temptations of drugs, petty crime and idleness. But minutes after he and 44 other students arrived at the front gate, George just wanted to escape. A phalanx of tough-looking drill instructors appeared seemingly from nowhere and began pounding on the bus, screaming at the boys to fall out, line up, shut up. They marched the "recruits" to the barracks, shaved their heads, issued camouflage fatigues and assigned them bunks.

Fifteen-year-old George Peterson applied to Eagle Academy to escape the temptations of drugs, petty crime and idleness. But minutes after he and 44 other students arrived at the front gate, George just wanted to escape. A phalanx of tough-looking drill instructors appeared seemingly from nowhere and began pounding on the bus, screaming at the boys to fall out, line up, shut up. They marched the "recruits" to the barracks, shaved their heads, issued camouflage fatigues and assigned them bunks.

' Children learn every bit as well at home as in a public school building.' Frederick G. Knirk USC School of Education It is a classroom without walls. There is no teacher in sight. Students set their own hours and, in most subjects, final exams are nonexistent.