During an Inauguration Year, the usual State of the Union is replaced with a Letter to Congress.

 

As The School House has produced a State of the School each non-inaugural year, we present to our community a letter of goals, achievements and perspectives on the child and education on the whole.  

 

In midst of our 6th year, The School House New York has worked together - Parents, Educators and Learners - to create a whole new view of what is possible.  And more to the point we have see what happens when you take the very best kind of learning and place it in an environment built for children with community support and big dreams.  I’ve outlined several of our “only at The School House” methods below, how they affect children and what we can expect see in the coming months and years including the addition of our Middle School House, a school where 7th and 8th grade exceptional Learners - athletes, entrepreneurs, performers and other adolescents who have a passion - can fulfill their work while also excelling in academics (https://www.theschoolhouse.org/the-middle-house).   

 

With our literacy rate (54% of Americans read at a 6th grade level or below) now the same as Nigeria’s - a country that does not enjoy the GDP or the governing advantages of the United States - we must consider a radical disruption in the way we see school.  With over 60% of those children who attend schools citing anxiety and over 20% with a clinical mental challenge, we must also consider a disruption that goes beyond reform.  Nothing is more vital.  And this disruption oddly starts with us as individuals.  It starts with us disrupting our own view of school.  

 

This was true four months ago, when I made the radical decision - at least among our friends and family - to enroll my son into an 8th grade program where he could go to school in the morning and pursue his dream in the afternoon of becoming the first amateur in golf to win the Master’s.  This program advances through 12th grade and routinely has students continue to the Ivy leagues and elsewhere including southern colleges so vital to a golf’s career.  He is immensity beyond his peers from his previous prep school, now includes the top baseball, tennis and dancer junior professionals in the country as his friends, and can “school” from wherever we are when we travel.  It took a mighty mind-shift to make this feel right - the same shift that needs to happen across the country when it comes to 3-12 year olds.  Just the other day, my son ran out of school hoping I would take him to his TSH friend’s house so they could finish working out all the possibilities of E = MC^2.  He’s 11.  And proudly said that he’d never loved math more.  I’ve never loved TSH more knowing that he got to spend his day working this out with Educators who value his passion and know that his fish anatomy sculpture and his five paragraph essay on Eisenhower would surely get done this week.

 

Thank you to many people in our local community and our national community who continue to support our mission financially and through covering our work in the press.  This school has always been for working families and we simply could not keep costs so low for the Learners who attend while maintaining the highest level of innovation and progress without your help.  

 

Curriculum.

 

The American Emergent Curriculum practiced at The School House can be succinctly described as a new category of curricula.  Here are the elements that - with the work of a 36-person Team over the last 7 years - make it the only curriculum of its kind in the United States:

 

1.  Most school in the U.S. have cut art, music and recess because they need to teach “more”.  This is isn’t true.  They do not need to teach more, they need to teach smarter.  If you indeed look to cover biology, literature and math in a vacuum then yes, it will take you much more time.  If you then fill days with moving children from place to place in line, allowing disruptive behavior and encouraging fatigue with lessons that are uninteresting, you will also waste a tremendous amount of energy equity.  The AEC teaches Ancient Rome (history) with communicating vessels (physics) with math (solving for volume) as an example.  This not only allows us to cover vastly more information, it gives children a “whole world” perspective.  Schools would have a much better success if they adopted this interconnected model and set it amidst mixed aged classrooms.

 

2.  Same, hard work.  Every child whether 3 or 12 experiences the same curriculum.  A Primary child can understand basic chemistry - for instance we are delving into brain chemistry this session - and a 5th grader can then take that same information and complete infinitely more difficult work around the subject.  This also allows for quality control within each classroom (we know what is being taught and how - something that is largely absent in schools across the nation) and both children and Educators alike can collaborate on topics they are working through.

 

3.  All positive.  There is bad news in the world, but it should not fall on the shoulders of children.  Children have plenty of time to learn about that in their adolescent years.  For now, the good of humanity, the natural world and all our possibilities in the future is the focus of the AEC.

 

4.  A new view of assessment.  There is a reason why TSH and the AEC Learners tested at twice the national average in literacy and nearly three times the national average in math in 2024: we assess on 3 levels.  First, paper of course.  Each day, Learners complete Mastery Practice in math and spelling as these are topics which need consistent repetition.  Second, Mastery Presentation.  Can a child teach a younger child long division, hot air rises or the verb grammar box.  If so, they have mastered that topic not just for a test, but for life.  And finally, observation.  Educators take time each week to observe how the child is responding to topics, what they might need to succeed and meticulously track their process, not through grades, but through assessing the whole child.

 

Additionally, TSH and the AEC have embraced key elements of the child-first viewpoint.  This includes:

 

1. Building an Educator culture - a group of teachers who feel valued, who laugh hard, teach voraciously, are fairly compensated and who are revered regularly.  

 

2.  Fostering key health programs like Presidential Fitness for our Elementary Learners, one-hour recess, nutrition as a science through our chemistry work, happy greetings on the front steps every morning, kindness in ALL we do, letter writing to show gratitude and events that showcase our community connection like concerts, debate nights, parent enrichment and our Invention Fair.  Our Learner Farm Stand every Thursday illuminates the food cycle and running a business in our seed-to-sale program and in the Spring is home to our Project Based Learning products.  MOST of all, no screens in the classrooms and a focus on technology - Food on Mars  and the Augmented Reality Sandbox as well as AI and web development in Middle School - which keeps children focused on doing and experiencing.

 

3.  A Headquarters Team that is in service of the Educator and the Learner.  No school needs dozens of administrators.  We need four or five high-level executives that can oversee the smooth running of a school that belongs to the child. 

 

4.  Beauty.  A place for children should be beautiful, full of flowers, nature, clean and organized spaces, natural light and interesting art (mostly theirs).  This dedication to the aesthetic of the school - free of clutter, primary colors, useless bulletin boards and stuffy rooms - makes the environment ideal for our Learners and Team alike.

 

In 2025, The School House launches two new opportunities for our Learners.  The Little House - accommodating just 20 children - is a revolution in day care.  Toddlers get to fulfill their work in over 50 provocations, baking, kindness, art, time in their very own garden and good food and nap time in an environment made just for them.  Additionally, TSH will expand to include The Middle School House, dedicated to adolescence and their needs.  Early teens can now pursue their passions as young athletes, entrepreneurs, performers and creators while working one day a week, completing high-level academics mid-week and also taking part in our executive functioning for adolescents program, working with AI, web development and production, engaging in our unique test-prep program and providing service to our community.  A fluid middle school with rigorous work that puts the child in control of their responsibilities, allows for travel and ensures success.

 

TSH itself is expanding with two new brick and mortar schools in 2026 in Florida.  And our beloved TSH Anywhere homeschool program is getting a facelift for the 21st century and presenting to venture capital firms in April 2025 to expand our reach to all Americans.

 

Meanwhile, here at our Northport campus, we’ll be starting a tradition of taking our 6th grade graduating class to a national park each year, further connecting the science between the mastery of Spanish language through music, honoring a Childhood Community Leader at our May Gala, expanding to give our Elementary II classroom access to our Barn Kitchen more regularly as well as mentorship with our in-coming 7th graders and pushing the envelope of how well and how much our children can learn and synthesize when we provide the right environment, curriculum and Educators.

 

Thank you all and most especially the Educators - who are infinitely talented - and the Parents who are infinitely brilliant in their support and vision of this new American school and our Community of Learners everyday.  

 

Remember, in keeping our yearly fees per child between $1500-$1800 a month for working families, none of this can happen without generous donations.  If you would like to become a part of this effort, please join our endowment by reaching out to me personally at 631-261-9000.  You will never fund something more personally rewarding or more drastically influential in changing our nation.

 

Warmly,
Mimosa Jones Tunney

Founder & President,
The School House & The American Emergent Curriculum