Location: Brooklyn, NY

Ever since I went to a magical after-school program in middle school (IMACS) that helped me go from hating math to falling in love with math, I've been extremely passionate about how we better educate children and build better places of learning.

I've read a lot of books, visited a lot of schools, did a lot of tutoring and teaching, and eventually started my own after-school computer science program here in NY, The Coding Space.

My biggest educational influences are Seymour Papert, The Sudbury Valley School, Blake Boles, John Holt, and John Taylor Gatto.

I believe that humans learn best at their own pace, voluntarily, self-directedly, so they have a chance to develop an intimate, positive emotional relationship with the material.

I believe that a lot of what traditional schools do is actively harmful to children: large classrooms, curriculum, lectures, tests, homework, etc.

Yet, it also feels depressing to keep a child alone at home all day, learning on the computer.

It feels like there should be another option that's a vibrant, social place for children to go that's a culturally rich environment to learn, be creative, make friends, go on adventures, do projects, play make-believe, have fun, learn lessons, have space for academic rigor and play, silliness and serious productive fun, time to run around outside and focus time inside, time to read whatever you want, time to go on a walk with friends.

Given how much I care about this, I fear that I might have to create this "school" myself: provide this vision, recruit the leaders, teachers, other parents and students, to help get it off the ground. If this sounds like your life's work, please reach out!

However, I'd be much happier to find that a school close enough to my dream close enough to where we want to live, and just get to send our kids there, without having to start it ourselves! Would you know of such a school?

Is a Montessori school close enough to what I'm looking for? What about Waldorf? Are there any other pre-existing options in my area?

My fiancé Emily and I are planning to raise a family in Brooklyn, NY. We currently live in Prospect Heights. We plan to have 2-3 kids.