Agile Learning Center @ MFS

The world is exploding with new information and high specialization. For children to learn to navigate this fast changing landscape, they need a chance to actually be at the helm of their learning experience, to practice making decisions and discover their gifts, talents and passions.Children are natural learners. They are at their peak of mental flexibility and ability to assimilate ideas, insights and exploration.

It is senseless to consume their days and evenings with the memorization and regurgitation of data for standardized tests on a narrow selection of subjects.We live in an age where information is at our fingertips. Far more important are the skills of finding it, filtering it, integrating it, and using it in new and creative ways to build something valuable.The ability to quickly translate a vision or idea into tangible results has always been a valuable skill. In today’s rapidly evolving world, it is a fundamental capacity of the leaders in every field. Daily activity at our Agile Learning Center is organized around this understanding.

How do you discover your purpose One thing we know is that you won’t find it without ample opportunities to explore. If you can’t try doing what you think you might love, you won’t find out whether or not you really love it. We regularly hear from parents that they wish they’d had the opportunity to explore their passions a lot earlier so they could have developed a greater sense of purpose. Maybe they didn't have to change their college major 5 times, graduate with a degree they didn't really use, then finally figure out what they’re about in a mid-life crisis. By high school, most of our students have figured out what their core passions are and are actively organizing their future around those things.

We don’t have a traditional curriculum, as in a set of subjects or classes one must take. Instead, we recognize that all social environments have ahidden curriculumwhich are the real lessons taught by the way social interactions are structured. So we have been conscious to craft the lessons of our environment. These are the lessons we've built into our hidden “curriculum”

• Identifying your own needs and priorities
• Creating projects which accomplish those priorities
• Organizing your time and activities around those projects
• Focus and follow through on those projects toward a creative end
• Sharing your creative output (in a digital portfolio)
• Reflecting on personal progress and impediments (in a personal blog)
• Co-creating a collaborative, supportive social environment
• Responsibility for your action and inaction and,
• Digital literacy

Students organize their education around their passions and interests, and in doing so learn faster and more deeply than in settings where students are forced to follow someone else's curriculum, sequence and pacing.

If your child is an advanced learner in some domain, and you want to find a place designed for minimizing impediments and maximizing support for their learning and growth, you need to visit us!