Notes on Alpha School
There was little accountability, and certainly few life skills were being learned.
I also tutored many high school private school students who lacked life skills such as receiving feedback, goal setting, and independence.
Alpha is very different from traditional schools. Students are held accountable. They are asked to do hard things. They learn how to iterate, accept feedback, and try again after failing. They learn life skills that will matter in an ever changing world. It is intentionally different from traditional education.
Alpha begins the year with a “boot camp” which consists of minimal life skills that are expected of students. Throughout the year, the school builds on those foundational skills.
The bootcamp is necessary because many new students arrive from traditional schools that have not required them to practice things like public speaking, goal setting, financial literacy, and receiving feedback. For many new students, they are not used to failing or receiving feedback. So Alpha uses the first eight weeks to bring students up to speed.
Alpha measures life skills, and there is an assessment for each one. Not everyone passes the first time. But unlike in many traditional school settings, failure at Alpha does not mean, “Oh well, you’re just bad at public speaking.” It means: “What do we need to adjust so you can get there?”
