For those parents who live in Southwestern Ontario or know people who do, I’d like to share some information about our new school.

Here are seven ways our Infinity School (an Acton Academy) program is different from traditional schooling, whether that is through public or private schools:

Infinity School students will be taught to think critically.

This article really struck a chord with me: Has Ontario taught its high-school students not to think? (Elementary and high schools spend so much time on the content-laden curriculum that students are unprepared for the analytic and conceptual thinking they’ll need at University.  

Similar information was discussed by one of my Huffpost colleagues here: Why Public Schools Don’t Teach Critical Thinking.

In this post, Frank Breslin states, “The school owes its students to teach them how to think, not what to think; to question whatever they read, and never to accept any claim blindly; to suspend judgment until they’ve heard all sides of a question, and interrogate whatever claims to be true, since the truth can withstand any scrutiny. Critical thinking is life’s indispensable survival skill, compared to which everything else is an educational frill!”

We agree! Passively learning information from a person conducting a lecture, and then being required to regurgitate this information is called “learning to know.” Our students will do some of that, but mostly focus on: learning to learn, learning to do, and learning to be.

Our curriculum progresses according to mastery not time.

Our students will not be pushed to move along to the next concept if they don’t fully understand the previous one. The children will have the support they need to either spend more time learning something or zoom ahead if they’re able.

Children of different ages work together like a modern-day one-room school house.

There is rarely a time when people are segregated according to age–other than traditional grade groupings. For most of life, people of different ages are together: families, work groups, sports teams, committees, governments, corporations, arts groups, are all collections of multi-aged individuals. Keeping in line with the philosophy that group collaborations support learning best, as explained in Salman Khan’s (creator of KhanAcademy.org)  bookThe One World Schoolhouse, our Eagles will learn in multi-aged communities. 

The Infinity School Badge System ensures skill-related development.

Our “Badge System” gives the Eagles (that’s what we call them) the opportunity to move ahead with skill-related progress rather than age-related progress. They won’t be bound by a grade level so if any student is ready to move ahead to the next program, whether that is middle school, high school, or even college/ university regardless of how old they are, they are welcome to do that.

This also ensures that those who benefit from spending more time on a certain Badge can do that without feeling embarrassed that they’ve been “kept back.” It is important that absolutely no shaming happens at Infinity School,so we will continually speak with our Eagles about respecting where each student is, and that there isn’t a better or right way to progress.

Our students will be able to move around and learn in comfort.

We know that it is unreasonable to make children and young adults sit still for long periods of time each day. If the students need to move or hang upside-down, we’ll find a way for them to do this without disrupting the learning of others. The students are allowed to take breaks when they need them and re-engage when they are ready to learn again.

No homework!

As our day is scheduled to support students with their skill-related learning, they won’t need to bring work home. We believe the evenings are for rest, activities, and family/ friend time. There still fails to be any research that consistently shows that homework is beneficial or useful for elementary-aged students. This post explains moreabout why homework won’t be assigned at our school.

Infinity School operates on a “modified school calendar.”

We know that students do better with multiple breaks throughout the year and a shorter summer break. Our family is certainly looking forward to holidays in October, February, April, and June! For those families who cannot take time off during our scheduled breaks, we’ll make sure to have fun camps prepared for students to participate in.Please click here to see the calendar!

Also, if your family has something important scheduled in the first two weeks of July, that’s okay, we’ll help you stay caught up if you need to be away during that time.

Do you have any questions? Please do pop by our parenting information night on Wednesday the 4th or email/phone us if you can’t make it that evening. We look forward to meeting you! 

Parent Information Night: Wednesday, May the 4th at 7pm in the Lounge Room of the London Jewish Community Centre. Vineet and I will provide a short presentation then give you ample time to ask questions.

We have created a Facebook Event page for this informational evening, too, so please do click the link to get more information.