![]() ![]() Teachers are expected to do everything, from creating curriculum, to teaching it, to grading it.to countless other tasks. What we found was Dexter, a startup private school based in Texas that perfectly met our needs.ĭexter was created because the founders believed that public school education today is an artisan model that doesn't scale. I wrote about this in The World Has Changed: Will Public School Change With It?ĭuring the summer of 2020, we had no illusions that school would re-open in the fall, so we went looking for the best possible online school we could find. We were no longer confident our children were getting the education they need and deserve. My wife and I were floored by how low the bar actually is, despite the fact that we live in a "very good" school district.Īfter watching an incredibly poor response from our board of education, it became clear that public school is designed around teachers, not students. What this exposed is just how little learning is actually taking place today. Instead of seamlessly moving online the way many businesses did, our school made the lesson plans and materials available and parents were effectively left to teach it themselves. Our children both attended Green Valley Elementary in San Ramon Valley Unified School District when school closed on March 13, 2020. It's a natural progression of what our family has already done over the last year. This might sound daunting, so let me explain. Undeterred, I started wondering if I could create a DIY Astra Nova for 5-7 kids. Only waitlist spots are currently available, and we've heard that getting in is hard even for SpaceX employees. To our great disappointment, we learned the application deadline for Fall 2021 was January 4, 2021. Conundrums: Short ethical quandaries and problem solving.īeyond these unique offerings, the full-time program overall is exceptional, and the full details on admissions for Fall 2021 and beyond can be found here.Data Driven Decision-Making (3DM): A quantitative reasoning class that uses optimization problems, case studies, and dilemmas to drive deep learning in economics and statistics.An experience that uses coooperation and competition to work through complexity and solving for the unknown. Synthesis: The most innovative experience from Astra Nova.True to its mission to teach children creative problem solving, Astra Nova has classes you won't find anywhere else, including: Most simply, running an online school allows us to best accomplish our mission as a school: more time devoted to singular learning experiences, greater resources committed to serving a more diverse student body, and better opportunities to share our work with students around the world. In fact, his kids now complain that vacations are too long and that they want to go back to school.Īfter leaving the SpaceX campus, Astra Nova looked at a number of options for a physical facility, but ultimately decided to permanently be an online-only school for 5th-8th grade, adding 60 students for the 2020-2021 school year: So far Elon has been happy with the results. At this point, something very important happens: the relevance of the tools becomes obvious. And you need a wrench, that's what the wrench is for. How will we take it apart? Oh, well you need a screwdriver. A much better way would be to say here's the engine, now let's take it apart. But this is a very difficult way to teach people how engines work. The traditional approach is to learn all about screwdrivers and wrenches, and to have a course on screwdrivers and a course on wrenches. The example Elon gives is teaching people how engines work. The second principle for his school is to teach to the problem, not to the tools. The reason for this is that different people love different things and so have different abilities at different times. The first principle for his school is catering the education to match aptitudes and abilities, rather than insisting that all students be grouped by grade. One of the most interesting things I've discovered recently is Astra Nova, the latest incarnation of the school that Elon Musk started on the SpaceX campus in Los Angeles.Įlon recounts in an interview that he started the school because he didn't believe regular schools were doing what needs to be done in education. ![]()
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