School Philosophy
Children have tremendous potential far beyond what we’ve come to accept as possible. But most of this potential is never realized, because we fail to nurture their most important growth resource: self-motivation. At Inner Fire we believe that helping kids take age-appropriate ownership of their lives and decisions is they key to growing into confident, successful, and emotionally healthy adults.
We believe microshools offer a unique environment for developing student autonomy. Traditional schooling follow industrial manufacturing principles with scale and efficiency in mind, to ensure widespread literacy and an employable workforce. Large classrooms, strict grade cohorts, and uniform state-wide curricula are excellent for serving a large number of students, but don’t necessarily create the best environment for each individual. The result can be demotivated students, burnt out teachers, and a loss of the joy of learning.
Inner Fire’s purpose is to deliver a world-class educational experience that is specifically designed to avoid these pitfalls and engender an internal love of learning in every student. We start from a set of core beliefs about learning:
What: Students need to have a sense of control and ownership over their learning
How: Give them high autonomy and choice, even if it leads to some mistakes and inefficiencies in the short term
How: Emotionally, let kids practice working through arguments and conflicts on their own before stepping in
What: Kids learn more from what adults model in their behavior than from what they say
How: Teachers must demonstrate passion and love for every subject they teach
How: Fewer lectures for students to listen to, more exercises and projects—and teachers do them too!
What: Learning only happens by working at the right level of challenge
How: Individualize assignments and expectations, avoid too easy and dull or too hard and discouraging
How: Constantly experiment with ideas and approaches to see what most inspires each student
Our secret to making this happen has just two ingredients: exceptional teachers with a burning passion to help kids be their best, and tiny class sizes–only 8 kids per teacher. Small classes allow us to customize curriculum exercises to each learner and the reduced burden of classroom management allows us to promote a freer learner-led experience that is more fulfilling for both kids and teachers.
I want every student to have a nurturing environment with enjoyable and challenging learning opportunities. I believe that in the right classroom, any child can achieve academic excellence and build the confidence of having done it for themselves.
Sebastian Predescu
Inner Fire Lead Teacher