Measuring Success

Friday, January 13, 2023 Savannah, GA, USA

How do you measure success for yourself? For your child? What do you value? What will give you the feeling of a life well lived when looking back on your life at 90?

When looking back on life, we think there are three big questions to measure success: 

  • Did I contribute something meaningful? 
  • Was I a good person? and
  • Who did I love, and who loved me?

Are your daily habits in line with how you measure success? 


No Grades = More Accountability

Thursday, November 25, 2021 Savannah, GA, USA



In a traditional classroom, subjects are presented each year, and everyone moves in lockstep. How well you learn this material based on the yearly timeline is recorded as a grade. In our studio, learners work on their Core Skills (reading, math, grammar/spelling) based on their own timeline. They create daily, weekly and session goals to keep in step with their yearly goals. Learners do not move on until they have mastered the material. This is a much higher level of accountability than the traditional model of grades. 

In the traditional model, you could spend a year getting B's or C's, moving to the next grade level, and progressing while not understanding a good chunk of the material. Requiring mastery is asking for more accountability. 

It also allows learners who love to learn the freedom to challenge themselves and move more than one grade level a year.

How can learners be accountable to parents if grades aren't sent home? Parents can see their learners' progress anytime on Mastery Book, our transparent tracking program. Tracking mastery is a higher level of accountability and transparency. 

No Homework = More Involvement

Monday, November 1, 2021 Savannah, GA, USA

The idea of no assigned homework in Elementary School can be misunderstood. 

There is plenty of time to accomplish all school-based elementary academic goals at the studio. There is no need to do additional schoolwork at home.*

No homework makes after-school sports and activities easier to manage. Personal interests have breathing room, whether athletic, academic, artistic or just time to play! All these can be enjoyed after school. As well as relaxed family time to enjoy reading together, taking a bike ride together, cooking together, taking a trip to the beach, or attending a car show with Dad. The list is endless. With so many ways to enrich your time at home, it's a shame to have school take up your family time. No homework means more time to shape a rich family life. Not to be less involved in your child's life.


*Please note that elementary learners may choose to work on their academics at home for various reasons. Sometimes, they wish to work at home on a that they're especially enjoying. Sometimes they work at home to avoid falling behind, allowing them to advance alongside their peers as their peers start to transition to an older studio. Parents need to coach their child on the importance of working at school and encourage their child to use school time to complete work. 

Middle School will often have work to do at home if they are not focusing and managing time well at school.

When We Say Goodbye

Monday, May 3, 2021 Savannah, GA, USA


People move. Rarely does anyone live in one city for their whole life. And even if you stay in one place for a lifetime, there will still be coming and going around you. It creates an indisputable fact: you'll meet a changing cast of fellow travelers on your journey. 

At our studio, when one of our learner's Hero's Journey takes them somewhere new, it's different from a classmate who moves away at a traditional school. Here, we don't only say goodbye to a friend we enjoy playing with, we also say goodbye to one of our guides who has been teaching and helping us on our own journey, to a studio mate who has helped us build our culture, to a leader that has helped us create our governing rules and who helps hold us accountable to the standards we strive to live up to daily. 

In a self-governing studio, it's hard to express just how vital each hero is. After all, they run the place. When we say goodbye to one of our young heroes, we say goodbye to much more than a friend. 

All we can do is hold the present moment lightly, knowing the only constant we can count on is change. Enjoy the parade of personalities. Soak up as many lessons as we are fortunate enough to be exposed to. Be grateful for every twist and turn, as around every corner is an opportunity. And most of all, keep taking the steps to further our Hero's Journey. 

<3 

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