Our Mission

In day school and evening college preparatory teaching, The School of Choice devises and teaches one-on-one and small classes for gifted, talented, challenged or unusually motivated students who make use of our expertise and mentoring to learn about and fulfill their heart’s desires.

Helping Students Tailor Education to Reach Their Potential.

“Who are you?” “Who do you want to be?”
“What is the universe like?” “What must you know about it?”
“How can you contribute and, thereby, earn a living?”

These are questions teens must determine for themselves, yet they are questions ignored all too often in large, age-centered, social situations, test-oriented educational systems and bureaucratic administrative systems. Passive learning in groups deprives students of the chance to answer these questions for themselves. Thirty per cent of California's students drop out of high school without college degrees; others slide through a system that seems meaningless just to find that they can't pass exit exams or enter colleges without remedial help: thus the system fails to prepare the majority for college. Administrators then impose rigid disciplinary rules more to preserve the system than to help all students as individuals. We support independent learners who wish to create lives like the characters of novels, creators and achievers who carve the beauty out of stone hewed rough by bureaucratic education.

At The School of Choice, we believe gifted, challenged, unusually motivated or independent-minded students should learn about and follow their own "inner agenda" in order to achieve their fullest potential. Students fall through the cracks because they are too fast, too slow, or just not interested in the school's state mandated curricula or teaching methods. We believe in curricula that exceeds state and UC/CSU standards, but we can readily offer dozens of options in prepared curricula or the chance to devise curricula just for a single student. We know that different teaching styles and learning techniques match each student best, and we can make a complete curricula that works for each individual.

Some students need special classes to accommodate their giftedness. These students or others need special assistance for learning challenges, and we can find experts and caring teachers to help; but these students won't be stigmatized because they don't fit into group classes. We generally don't give F's; we just work with students patiently until they pass. Some students become disciplinary problems because the system can't think of anything more imaginative than punishment. We find that they respect us because we are student centered and because we listen to their needs; who needs punishment? Our students can wear their hair long so long as they know the long term consequences of such actions.

The School of Choice hires empathetic, experienced teachers with advanced degrees or credentials. Like the best university professors, our teachers love to share ideas and controversies in their fields with bright young minds. We empower teachers as leaders: our professional educators are free to teach that which each knows best taken from the world's greatest books and ideas -- teaching with humor, variety and creativity. Our staff gives students warm encouragement, sound guidance and wise counsel. We welcome diverse students without regard to race, gender, creed, ethnicity or disability, and empower them with inspiration to instill habits of character and learning to last a lifetime. Like Dr. Martin Luther King, we believe that students should "…not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Full Time Study
When full-time students show up at our school, we don't just place them by age into a grade geared towards so-called social needs (and frequently bolstered by social promotion). We interview them to find out which of three general tracks-all leading to diplomas--works best for them: progress towards quick graduation with respect for their own extracurricular achievements and work experience; manageable college-prep curricula geared towards (and supplemented by) Community College attendance and possible transfers into the U. of California; enhanced learning intended to help students with AP classes and curricula advanced enough to gain them admission into the best four year Universities. Like "Tutors" at Oxford or Cambridge universities, our administrators and teachers work with parents to tailor a curricula individually for the student and then assign them to an instructor who assists students as much as they need until they reach their learning goals.

Our classes are resources which can enhance the one-on-one experience, science labs, discussion sessions or "Socratic Seminars" in small groups, or larger classes for drama or PE. Our teachers are qualified with Masters' Degrees, Ph.D's or Teaching Credentials. We can teach curricula as diverse as literature for art students, theology for a future Catholic priest, Japanese conversation, or AP Calculus to meet each student's need. We have a laboratory adequate to teach college preparatory science classes and we work with computer programs for certain curricula, motivating, supervising and explaining as is needed. We help students who choose Community College courses to graduate with high school diplomas.

The creativity of our program and flexibility of our scheduling allows students to participate who have health challenges, musical or athletic commitments or those who wish to gain valuable work or life experience in lieu of an unrelenting schedule. Parents and students will appreciate the flexibility of our schedules. Working parents know that we will monitor the behavior and studies of students outside tutorials to make sure they progress. But homeschooling parents know that students in good standing may leave school much of the time to complete their work at their own pace or engage in other life challenges.

By offering I-20' assistance, we welcome English learners and students from a variety of cultures. In contrast to schools which separate students from religion or which teach but one religion, we teach a common core of secular academic classes and then encourage students to choose courses from a variety of philosophies and religions. In contrast to schools which separate students from religion or which teach but one religion, we teach a common core of secular academic classes and then encourage students to choose courses from Bible studies, Islamic studies, or comparative philosophies and religions. We seek teachers and students from other faiths--e.g. Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism--to establish parallel religious programs. Gifted or independent-minded children seek out the deepest of values, constantly daring to question or confirm everything they hear. They can go deep into religion, philosophy, astronomy or business enterprise because we create curricula that enables them to develop special talents and interests.

One-on-One: A Graphical Approach to The Creative Process.
A few charts might reveal how our educational process works. Upon arrival, we listen to parents and students and evaluate important information about the child's present levels of academic and social performance. We then determine specific goals for their education, generalized into three general tracks with related levels of choice and responsibility: preparation for the best four year universities, preparation for community college with hopes of transfer, preparation for jobs requiring only high school graduation.

Freedoms	Responsibilities
Track One: The Four Year University Plan: As an academic high flyer, I want the chance to go straight to four year universities. I seek a professional or entrepreneurial career rewarded well for knowledge, leadership and creativity. I am both curious and productive.	I will sit for PSAT, SAT and AP tests and submit college applications. I pledge to take AP classes with passing grades, to do challenging problem sets, to study technical subjects and vocabulary, to take regular mastery tests, and to read 100-150 pages per week in many classes.
Track Two: The Community College Transfer Plan: I want a moderate amount of work so that I can attend a community college and, hopefully, transfer into a four year program. I want a career involving moderate levels of technical knowledge and responsibility. I will do what is needed	Let me mix some general education with work related to my interests . I'll read fifty pages a week in easier books which are a mixture of classics and more popular works. I may not take Calculus, but I need Algebra and Geometry and Chemistry.
Track Three: The Begin My Career Early Plan School's a drag but I've got to get through. My mind is on my job after school and yet I know that I've got to get a diploma to get ahead. Let me do the minimum to get on with life.	I need some job-related books and training and some practical skills. Give me enough general math and English skills to get by. Help me to draw up business plans or resumes, etc.

A word to the wise: Choose your plan realistically. We will hold you responsible for the goals and responsibilities you choose. You will not advance to later units if you do not pass this week's units. For our part, we will not fail to give you the support you need.

Once we have established agreement on the general purposes of education, we then determine the learning style that works best for your children and try to tailor the curricula to fit their interests. How might this work in an English class, for example? We ask students and parents to choose the learning style and content themes from the charts below:

Personalized Education Plans in English Literature and Composition (Please circle the learning styles and content themes you prefer. One-on-one, we'll let you do them.)
English skills required	Preferred learning styles supported	Content Themes preferred (samples)	Sample Materials
Students must read from and write about challenging books, particularly if they wish to gain college admissions. However, there are many types of great books and many ways to motivate students to read them. Let's start by listening.	Visual/logical-reading and writing Verbal/logical-discussion, speech, debate Artistic-Serious or comedic sketches Kinesthetic-Drama	Bildungsroman Romance Science Fiction Mystery War and Strife Gender Ethnicity Religion Adventure Politics Philosophy Be creative	The Yearling, Sense and Sensibility, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dune , Ender's Game, Murder on the Orient Express, Oedipus Rex, War and Peace, Farewell to Arms, The Awakening, The Breakfast Club, Paradise Lost, The Three Musketeers, 1984, The Republic, Atlas Shrugged, My First Novel

To match responsibilities with freedoms, we must develop goals measurable in a variety of ways for each student. This is necessary for accreditation and transfer of units to the University of California/CSU system. We will then report regularly on progress to the parents by computer, by meetings and by grades. Naturally, we will establish a schedule of classes and tutorials and make recommendations for additional experts (including child psychologists, educational therapists, etc.) as is needed. The following chart shows how an PEP might be used for skills in a variety of subjects:

Sample Personalized Education Plans (Middle and High School)
Learning Goal/ State Standard	Learning Style	Books/Resources Available	Assessments Used	Grade Attained	Date of Mastery
Properties of Triangles	Lecture/problem sets on whiteboard	Geometry text	Problem set and in-class quiz	B	1/16
Bildungsroman novels	Group discussion	100 pages of The Alchemist	Discussion and essay on content.	C	2/22
Electro-magnetism	Lecture/Reading	40 page textbook chapter.	Problem sets	D-repeated C-repeated	2/1 2/5 2/7
America in Korean War	Private reading and visuals	100 page special assignment	Thematic essay with maps and charts.	A	3/6
Japanese Haiku	Read and write Haiku bilingually	English and Japanese Haiku	Write English Haiku, translate; speak before group.	C	4/12
Dribbling	Group practice	Outdoor court	Teacher observation; timed dribbling test.	A	4/11

Part Time Study: Achievement in daytime, after-school and summer school.
Naturally, some students in regular private or public schools prefer to take classes geared to their needs and interests. They may need to make up grades mid-year or in summer school or may wish to raise GPA's with AP classes. They may not like the teacher's style in regular school or the large, impersonal, nature of the classes. Thus we offer for-credit part-time classes afterschool, during school hours or in summer school. We have successfully guided students afterschool through AP classes, writing instruction and SAT preparation for the past ten years and have helped ambitious students as young as seventh grade to pass AP tests.

We also welcome afterschool students, particularly middle-schoolers, to courses in reading, writing, vocabulary development and grammar. In math, our afterschool classes in Algebra, Geometry and AP Calculus are most popular. We offer drop-in sessions on short notice for those who need special homework help. Our SAT courses are more intellectual than others'; we view them more as alternative English or Math courses where we still strive to teach universal philosophical or literary principles in addition to test taking techniques.

One might say that we are more mentors than shepherds, cops, lecturers or classroom instructors. Though we favor the higher learning of "classical education", we are good at listening so that each student can express and develop what is in their heart. The act of creating curricula lets students discover who they are. Our academic freedom then lets us help them explore the universe without being bounded by rigid course schedules, restrictions on religious learning, or dumbed-down curricula that lacks the depths of philosophy. As the students know themselves and their universe, we prepare them for self-realization in their chosen calling. We are curricular experts who tailor education, coaches who help with SAT and AP testing, advisors who write their letters of recommendation, and mentors who know their students better than any classroom teacher could and who care to give them the best shot in life.

"It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think."-Matthew Arnold

We celebrate your realm of educational choice.

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