A Smarter Way to Start a School

Elitist that I am, I care deeply about improving education for the intellectually gifted, those with the greatest potential to solve our problems: from terrorism to cancer to inventing the next Google.

Alas, in today's egalitarian era, educational resources have, especially in elementary schools, been reallocated to the lowest-achievers. For example, ability-grouped classes have so often been replaced by mixed-ability classes, in part so the bright kids can become indentured servants helping low-achieving students. That, of course, denies bright kids of their right to an appropriate-leveled education. For example, even though a bright third-grader may be reading on a fifth grade level, s/he may be required to help classmates with The Cat in the Hat.

For the foreseeable future, the public schools will not likely change, so the main hope is in private schools. It is very difficult to start a private school in the traditional way, but I believe an excellent school can be created far more simply. This model could be used to start a school for any group of students of relatively homogeneous ability.

1. It should be a one-room elementary schoolhouse run by a teacher who would be a transformational teacher and mentor to gifted kids. (No principal is required.)

2. The teacher uses his/her own home as the school. That may seem creepy to some parents, so low-cost alternatives include vacant rooms in churches, community centers, etc.

3. Excellent curriculum is available free on the Net. A portal for such curriculum is THIS article in Duke University's Gifted Newsletter.

4. Students are selected based on an IQ test (a far more validly potent measure of academic ability than critics claim), an interview, and a group activity with other prospective and current students.

5. The curriculum is defined by interactivity, development of critical thinking, writing, leadership, and identification and development of students' passions.

6. The school is set up as an "independent study" or "home school" thereby enabling attendees to meet the state's compulsory education requirement.
7. The only paid staff are the teacher and a part-time administrative assistant. The kids would be in charge of cleaning up.

8. The school might elect to not seek accreditation. That may require too much money and compromise.

9. The tuition can be set low not only because the teacher/principal is using his home but because there's no gym, cafeteria, library, etc. The school provides what counts: great teaching, transformational curriculum, brilliant, good kids--the perfect greenhouse for intellectual, social, and emotional development.

I believe that such a school could be economically viable with 15 students paying $10,000 a year. And with a decent marketing effort (for example, presentations at libraries in locales with high achievers, articles in local newspapers and websites) a great teacher should have little trouble recruiting that many kids. And I believe it could be started in just months.