Successful Outcomes

1. High Academic Standards

• Back to the Basics: Emphasis on reading, writing, and arithmetic, over nonessential busywork. No passive, or “feel-good” material that doesn’t challenge students intellectually.
• High-Quality Content: Students need a rich database of knowledge to draw from. We should provide meaningful content that explains how the world works. Teachers should relate big questions to everyday life, so students know “why do we have to learn this?”
• Serious Teachers: Teachers should be domain-specific experts who are interested in the subject for its own sake. Offer an Expedited Certification Program for individuals who are recognized in their field, and well-known in the community.
• Consistent Testing: Students want to prove to themselves that they understand the material. Tests motivate students to do the work. They treat it like a game, as long as the instructions are clear, and the grading is fair.
• Advanced and Gifted Programs: Students should be matched according to ability, so less-advanced students are not left behind at the advanced pace. Students should excel at what they’re good at, whether it’s academics, sports, or music. Otherwise, it falls on everyone else (who doesn’t excel at those things).

2. Healthy Social Standards

• Discipline: We live with other people, and in order for everyone to get along, we can’t just do whatever we want. Schools should teach children correct behavior, so they know how to act. It sharpens their mind, gives them confidence, and makes them more helpful to others.
• Excellence: Students are less likely to entertain distractions and destructive behavior when there are clear standards about right and wrong. Instead of normalizing failure, and dealing with the consequences after the fact, schools should promote excellence. It takes the burden off students, who don’t have to justify “trying”.
• Thoughtful Students: Schools should be comfortable places where students can develop their individuality. Antisocial trends in pop entertainment downplay normal relationships, such as friends and family, in order to promote consumerism as the answer to lack of meaning. Schools offer a refuge from the chaos where students can concentrate on what’s important.
• No Identitarianism: Issues like growing rates of obesity and mental illness cannot be resolved until they are admitted as problems by those entrusted with resolving them. Identitarianism blames children by pretending that they either chose that lifestyle, or they were doomed from birth.
• In-Person Learning: Schools should take advantage of everyone being together. Relying on computer screens deprives students of social interaction and full-sensory participation. Neighborhood schools are close enough for students to walk to, and they serve as neighborhood hubs.

3. Individual Exploration

• School is Fun: Students learn better when school is enjoyable. We shouldn’t accept that “some things aren’t fun” to justify why students aren’t motivated. It’s up to teachers to explain the material in an engaging way. Students actually enjoy the “unfun” parts when they understand the point of it.
• Inspired Students: Every student is needed for the community to function correctly, and it’s not up to them whether or not to contribute. They need to develop their skills because even if they can’t be the next Beethoven, the community would still like to have an orchestra. Beautiful examples of art and music show students what is possible.
• Creativity: Schools shouldn’t give students too much discretion too early on. Students need to master knowledge before they can use it creatively. Self-directed learning allows students to verify the information for themselves, and fit it into their existing body of knowledge. Core knowledge gives students what they need to know for specialization later on.
• Informal Learning: Children need spaces where they can interact spontaneously in a structured setting. Industrial mega-schools dump everyone together without a sense of community, and then over-police the situation when it doesn’t work. Children can regulate themselves if they’re given the right environment. They prefer autonomy because that’s how they’re meant to develop.
• Trusted Authority: Children are dependent on adults. If something doesn’t ring true for children, teachers should pay attention. Children are in tune with what feels wrong, and they can sense when something is fake or over-the-top. Teachers and parents should work together as a team. If parents undermine the teacher, the child assumes they don’t have to listen to the teacher. They will conveniently “side” with not doing work.