The sooner you recognize that there’s a second, secret, school you can enroll in, the better.
Some never realize it, or discover it only after college is over. Others perceive it in elementary school, and are able to enroll in Secret School and get all the advantages of concurrent enrollment.
Secret School happens in the exact times and places of public, charter, and private schools. It has the same adults, though most of your Official School classmates aren’t enrolled.
In Secret School:
- Students can put in as much effort as they choose: not for the grade, but for the experience. That might mean phoning in a pointless or boring assignment (or not completing it if they deem it unnecessary) but responding to challenging or creative schoolwork with passion and effort.
- Students learn that their Official School teachers want to encourage and support students who want to learn more.
- Students discover that the standard pace is for chumps.
- There are no grades for Secret School, but there is growth in knowledge, understanding, and passion. Students develop new autonomous skills that serve them forever.
- Students choose classes not for GPA, college admissions, or external expectations, but for personal growth.
- Students are their own principal, their own counselor, their own teacher.
- Students acquiesce to the rules of Official School, but they never forget their enrollment in Secret School.
You can enroll in Secret School anytime you want, and you will grow faster than you ever thought possible. It will be more challenging but the increase in rewards will be even greater. You will be questioned – right up until the point that you are a runaway success, at which point everyone will take credit.
The most important rule of Secret School is the Rule of Attention. Students of Secret School are required to direct their own attention, but this must never be an excuse for laziness. Adults might need to guide new enrollees in Secret School until they get their sea legs in managing their attention.
Parents – have you told your children about Secret School? Have they discovered it on their own? Students who discover Secret School are harder to control, but also harder to stop from achieving their dreams. In the end, isn’t that what you want for your kids?
Teachers – how do you support your students who are enrolled in Secret School? They are harder to manipulate with the carrot/stick of grades but they reward good teaching with enthusiasm, they respond to your passion and agree with you that teaching to the test is a waste of everyone’s time.
Someday, maybe, Official School might look more like Secret School. Surely our children would be better prepared to chart an uncertain path through life with their autonomy, attention, and intentionality strengthened. But in the meantime, we should help students discover Secret School as soon as they are able, and support the ones who do discover it.