To all mankind,
We in the world of alternative education really like to talk about all the ways our education system is failing. It's fun to do and gets us hyped up to push for change. But it's really only productive up to a point, and eventually we need to start getting specific about how to fix it.
It's obviously not just the folks in our movement who see the writing on the wall. There's a fairly comprehensive effort to fix things, and it goes as high as the White House. Recent years have seen initiatives like Common Core and No Child Left Behind stirring the pot all across America. Local governments and school districts, too, are regularly organizing to implement sweeping reforms. They seem to be sincere in their objectives, but it's telling that results remain essentially flat.
To me, the issue isn't quite as tangible as the will to improve, or even execution. We have these in abundance. On the flip side, it isn't as recklessly ideological as "the problem with kids these days", and writing off a failing system as an inherent social ill is both defeatist and wrongheaded. Organizing on a wide scale is a fundamentally flawed way to address education, and will continue to fail forever, due to the simple fact that everyone is different. Kids learn at different rates. They have different talents, different interests, different learning styles. It seems quite obvious that the more comprehensive and general a program becomes, the worse it fits the individuals it aims to reach.
The microschool model is founded on simply accepting that education has to be tailored to the individual. There's no way to rubber stamp a custom education. Grander organization, smoother systematization, and tighter regulation are entirely counterproductive to what kids need to prepare to compete in tomorrow's creative economy. With the fundamental belief that kids must be allowed to diligently pursue their own interests, devoted educators everywhere can begin hashing out the details, each one guiding a handful of students along their own, unique journey.
At Microschool Revolution, we discovered that there are a lot of people who want give our kids a better education. They're just missing a little bit of startup money and the business guidance to step out and found a school of their own. We created Microschool Revolution to bridge that gap. We connect passionate founders with the funders who believe in their visions, but we're more than just a broker. Microschool Revolution is a network of people who are dedicated to supporting each other and spreading a model of education that actually has a chance to prepare our kids for the future.
We hope you'll play a part.
Tory Gattis
Founder