A Learning Environment for the Builders and Creators of Our Future

Based on evidence-backed research and the latest thinking on k-6 education, Wilderland provides a supportive educational environment for children to unleash their potential. Our learning community aims to give a true sense of belonging to all students. Our guides and curricular resources will help them foster a real love of learning, deep empathy for the greater world, and proactive initiative to make the world a better place.

Our Academic Pillars

Wilderland is founded on these pillars of academic philosophy, that education should be:

Learner-driven

Children will learn best when they lead and drive their own education

Nature-oriented

Children are healthier, happier, and smarter when they interact frequently and deeply with nature

Democratic

Children will come up with effective and lasting solutions when they are involved and empowered to solve their collective problems, especially their own behavioral issues

Play-based

Play is an intellectual “superfood” and a remarkable catalyst for motivating learning

Mastery-focused

Children should engage rigorously with the material to develop mastery of the subject matter

Curiosity-led

Children should look within themselves for the spark that will ignite new passions, which will inevitably lead to more efficient and enduring accumulation of knowledge

Ethics-enlightened

Children should wrestle with the greatest stories in history (fiction and non-fiction) to discuss difficult moral dilemmas that can inspire future visionary leadership in our society

Creativity-powered

Children who are emancipated in their education to dream up inventions and creations of their own design will be better prepared to contribute meaningfully to the greater world

Community-integrated

Children should connect extensively to the real-world fabric of their hyperlocal community

Globally-minded

Children should be culturally aware and sociopolitically conscious of the systemic underpinnings of world order and international relations, and how it impacts their everyday lives

Tech-supported

Children should be literate in standard and futuristic forms of technology, so they may learn to continually adapt, grow, and stay relevant in an ever-changing world

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“The truth is that play seems to be one of the most advanced methods nature has invented to allow a complex brain to create itself.” - Stuart Brown, MD

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“The truth is that play seems to be one of the most advanced methods nature has invented to allow a complex brain to create itself.” - Stuart Brown, MD

🛝

“The truth is that play seems to be one of the most advanced methods nature has invented to allow a complex brain to create itself.” - Stuart Brown, MD

Our Raison D'être

The founding team decided to build a new educational environment from the ground up to root out and help prevent the ever-encroaching, intractable problems afflicting our youth. We hope to address the following challenges: the youth mental health crisis, the learning disability epidemic, the school bullying crisis, the chronic absenteeism crisis, the teacher shortage and resignation crisis, the behavioral health epidemic, the play deprivation crisis, the school dropout crisis, the reading proficiency crisis, the failure to launch crisis, the student loan crisis, and many more.

We believe that many of these crises originate from structural issues inherent in traditional public and private schooling. Schooling in general has become increasingly dissonant with and detached from the needs, problems, and way of life of modern society. We believe the solutions come from an entirely new model of k-6 education, and that is why we are starting Wilderland. We are preparing children to thrive independently in the unknowable—but sure to be vastly different—future.