Leader School
What you'll learn
Day school students of all ages spend about 5% of their time on each of the following areas.
(Students in all other programs focus on the ones that interest them most)
Wellness
Fitness & sports
Get some exercise, stay fit, and become a better team player
Nature & community
Get out in to the world rather than cooped up in a classroom all day
Mental wellness
Get in touch with your thoughts and feelings & learn how to manage them
Reflection & planning
Look back on what you've done well and how you could, and set goals for the future
Self improvement
Learn how to be productive, successful and financially responsible
Art
Learn how to use art as a channel for expression, inspiration and connection
Food studies
Learn how to eat healthily and prepare healthy, delicious meals
Awareness
Science
Learn why the universe works the way it does, and how to use that knowledge to understand global problems
History & culture
Learn how we got here, what our ancestors learned along the way, and how people around the world live
Current events & politics
Learn what's going on in your community & world, and how to be a good citizen
Impact
Problem solving
Learn how to find the root cause of any problem, and how to brainstorm and test out solutions
Mathematics
Learn how to gather and analyze data to gain a deeper understanding of anything
Tech & design
Learn how technology works, how to design good products, and what the future of tech means for us
Entrepreneurship
Learn how to scale a solution to a problem sustainably and make a broader impact
Writing
Learn how to communicate with, engage and inspire people via writing
Speaking & listening
Learn how to do the same via public speaking, listen deeply and ask good questions
Why is it different from other schools?
While other schools are theoretical, Leader School is deeply practical.
Other schools ask students to memorize a bunch of information and hope some of it will be useful in the future - and that they'll remember it at that time. But research in neuroscience has shown that this is simply not the way our brains work: we need to regularly use what we learn in order for it to really stick.
So instead, students at Leader School are constantly directly applying their learning, either to their own lives or to projects that aim to make a real impact in their communities.
We think our curriculum stacks up quite well when compared to the curriculum of more traditional schools. Here's a closer look:
Math
Instead of learning math from a textbook, our students' math learning focuses on gathering and analyzing data as a tool for making an impact with their projects.
While other schools hope that student's learning of math will make them better problem solvers, our students learn problem solving directly, as its own subject.
And while other schools hope that some of what students learn in math may someday be useful to them in the business world, our students learn that directly as well, through our entrepreneurship subject.
Science
Instead of learning the sciences from textbooks and memorizing it for tests, Leader School students learn about science as it relates to real challenges the world is facing: like climate change, natural disasters, and epidemic diseases.
Our students also learn about chemistry and biology in an applied form through food studies. And they learn about psychology in an applied form through mental wellness.
English
Instead of learning how to write formal academic papers, Leader School students learn how to communicate in ways that are more relevant to the real world in their writing subject & in their speaking and listening subject.
History & government
When Leader School students learn about history, they're encouraged to constantly think about how it connects to our culture and the world we live in today. And instead of learning about how government works in theory, our students learn how government is working today and how they can be involved, through our current events & politics subject.
The arts
Leader School agrees that an appreciation of art, expression and beauty is integral to being a well-rounded human being, so our students also have a subject for art. Students' opportunity to experience a feeling of connection to the world and appreciation for beauty does not end there, as they're also able to experience that in our nature & community subject. And our students are able to learn how aesthetic principles apply to building great products, through our tech & design subject.
Foreign language
While it can be helpful to learn a foreign language, we do not believe that all students must learn a foreign language in order to become a well-rounded adult.
Indeed, our research has found that most students who learn foreign languages wind up not using and forgetting them. One study, for example, found that just 0.7% of people still regularly speak the foreign language they learned in high school. So while learning a foreign language certainly can be beneficial, it’s clearly not very useful to most students.
That said, since Leader School has no required homework, parents and students are also welcome to use some of their out-of-school time using one of the many excellent apps and software for language learning.
Want to apply or learn more?
Just drop your name & contact info and we'll be in touch!