Why Zealous Schools?
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
– Simon Sinek, Creator of Start With Why and TED Talk Presenter
At Zealous Schools, we have designed our entire academic approach around one core objective: unlocking the potential of local youth.
We set out to achieve this via unique educational strategies that are backed by research and our own experiences in the field. For example:
Our daily schedule starts direct instruction at 9 am. Research shows that children are not getting enough sleep with conventional school start times. This subject is thoroughly explored in an article from the Atlantic Monthly here.
We coordinate weekly Friday field trips to connect the classroom learning with something more concrete and real. This also allows young teens to strengthen their sense of place within the community.
We bring in regular guest speakers to add relevance to the academic experience, inspiring kids to make the real life connections that support learning at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This taxonomy posits that learning takes on various forms depending on the tasks that you ask kids to engage in.
Meanwhile, the activities we design are intentionally connected to the immediate surroundings of our kids.
If we are studying World War II, it is likely to be through the lens of the 10th Mountain Division. If we are studying mining, we’re likely to visit the National Mining Museum in Lake County, just a short drive from our homes. If we are serious about learning the details of climate change and high-leverage tactics to mitigate carbon consumption, there is no better way to inspire kids than to look at the Eagle County Climate Action Plan.
This approach is predicated on the belief that we are much more likely to unlock the potential of our kids when the things they are learning are inspired by real challenges in our immediate community. By making learning personal, we awaken students’ passions and inspire a sense of agency.
Furthermore, the real challenges that we explore in our school almost never exist in isolation. They are integrally linked to other critical elements of our community, each unlocking a learning opportunity.
This reality is what makes learning projects so valuable for kids. They get the chance to see that things can be messy and that not everything can be answered with a textbook. They learn the difference between having good ideas and communicating good ideas. They learn to think more globally about an issue while developing solutions that are much closer to themselves. (For more on project-based learning, check out this short introductory video.)
At Zealous Schools, what we do and how we do it will always be defined by why we do it: to unlock the potential of our local youth. In doing so, we give the community-at-large a better shot at unlocking our collective potential and inspiring positive change for everyone.
Geoff Grimmer is the Co-Founder of Zealous Schools, a non-profit micro-school community in Eagle, Colorado that is launching in September 2018. He was featured in this interview by Anthony Scalio, Microsoft VP of Education.