For Homeschoolers
The dream for Inner Fire started from a homeschooling vision.
I was deeply concerned about sending my kids through institutionalized education. Would they be treated with respect? Would their curiosity and love of learning be nurtured? Would they be challenged enough? I worried that traditional schooling might impede rather than encourage their development into confident, joyous people.
The plan was this:
Get a group of friends together in the same neighborhood
Start a small homeschool just for ourselves, with parents rotating teaching roles
If successful, open some spots to the broader community
It's still the same plan, just in reverse. I'm starting the school that I'll want for my kids in the future. And I believe this type of education can be made available to everyone, one small pod at a time. That every learner can experience the love and attention from their teacher that they'd get from their parent.
And there's another reason: institutional schools are not designed for gifted children. When the standardized curriculum is too slow for the brightest kids, boredom threatens their engagement. And as they seek more stimulation, perhaps by chatting or wandering, they risk reprimands for disrupting the class. Teachers have their hands too full helping the struggling students and rarely prioritize custom engaging work for those ahead of the curve.
The central idea of Inner Fire is to customize the experience and challenge level to each student--and leave space for self-guided exploration--as one would in home school. We limit class sizes to 8 to make sure we can provide for each student, and we prepare materials at scaling difficulty levels for every subject. Our mission is that no student should ever feel lost without support or bored without a challenge.
I was once that gifted child, but I wouldn't have got to where I am without the right educational experience that helped me thrive. I hope to pay that forward to every child I am privileged to teach.
Sebastian Predescu
Inner Fire Lead Teacher