Idea School Method

The school is student centered and project focused.

Students will come up with projects or business ideas that they want to enact. We initially require them to put it down on paper so that we can work with them on the idea, though teachers are discouraged from criticizing the idea itself. We want to see what happens when we turn our students loose.

After the student puts down the idea they meet with their "home teacher" who is much akin to a guidance counselor, though much more. The student and the "home teacher" discuss which classes would be best for the student to take with the student making the final decision. Classes could be:

• Marketing
• Human Resources
• Accounting
• Business Theory

 OR

• Legal Entities
• Fund Raising
• Networking
• The Ethics of Outsourcing
• Singing
• Painting with Acrylics

We actually want to stray from teaching subject matter technically, but instead provide a learning environment for a particular subject.

The classes are meant to supplement the student's knowledge so that they can test the skills and information necessary to complete their project, not just learn about them. The project could be a business that the student wants to found, it could be a non-profit/community organization, or it could be a way to fund and expand the influence of their art or music.

This is an exploratory school as well. Students are encouraged to test particular paths they are interested in, which is why classes are to be 1-2 months long (as opposed to 5 months) and why classes will be between $80 and $300 instead of $500 to $5,000.

When the student "graduates", they do not receive a certificate of any kind (this may change when we begin to do professional/vocational training, 1-2 years out) Instead, the student accomplished something real! Either their business is off the ground and they are now obtaining funding (VC, Angel, bootstrapping, etc.), or they have a sustainable platform for their art or music projects via fund raising and networking.