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The LIFE School progressive high school in Atlanta
For kids who are looking for something boldly different from the typical high-school experience, The LIFE School offers a highly personalized, integrated curriculum that is tailored to each student’s passions and life goals.
Located in southwest Atlanta, this progressive, private high school is ideal for a student who is independent and self-reliant. Students learn through a series of self-directed interdisciplinary projects, as well as through required internships.
The Life School is in its first year of operation. The school is pursuing accreditation through SACS/AdvancEd.
Categories: In the schools
Gifted Atlanta 
This is an interesting concept. It appears to be one which would benefit kids who value creativity at a high level. The only thing, and an important thing, I’d worry about is the college prep aspect of the school, considering colleges still look at grades and GPAs as part of the admissions process. How are the courses at LIFE translated into AP and Honors courses, for example?
That’s certainly something to consider, Kay. It’s addressed in a good bit of detail on the “College Prep” page of the school’s site:
http://www.thelifeschool.co/college-prep.html
The school also encourages participation in “Move On When Ready,” what we used to call dual enrollment, to earn college credits while still in high school.
“We want students to focus on developing their life vision and mastery across subjects throughout their interdisciplinary projects.” That sounds great in theory. But as a teacher at a college-prep independent school, I’d be wary. Not because it wouldn’t be a great experience for the student. In fact, I’d love to be able to provide an experience like that for my child. But if a student is being compared to others who take traditional classes in the college application process, how do you translate the 3-4 capstone projects into the equivalent of the math, science, history, english students must take to get into college? I know this isn’t a question you can’t answer, but just thinking out loud.
Good question Kay. I’ll go back and update that page on our school’s website 🙂 We’ve designed badges for each subject that allow students to learn and demonstrate mastery of each subject in a more flexible way than traditional schools. Instead of taking classes, they work on group research projects, their own passion projects, and subject badges. The work they do for the subject badges is graded and goes on their traditional-looking transcripts. What’s nice is that the badges are designed so that students learn through hands-on work (like starting businesses and building stock portfolios to learn about economics and finance, and talking with veterans and community leaders to learn about history and government). Students can also complete the badges in an order that makes sense for them, instead of following the same order that everyone else their age is using. We have freshman studying economics and juniors studying creative writing, for example.
Hi Kay, I’m the founder of the school. I’m glad you think it’s interesting! I’d be happy to explain further about our model and how we prepare students for success in college. Let’s setup a time to chat — mikala@thelifeschool.co
i am actually very impressed to see the mission of this school,especially their passion projects which are:
Write and self-publish a book of original poetry.
Learn to speak Creole and plan a service trip to Haiti. (In a future project, take the trip.)
Prepare for the AP Calculus exam by taking a college calculus class.
Learn to code mobile apps by reproducing an existing app and launching it in the app store.
Plan a weeklong tour of New England colleges and universities.
Organize a winter holiday giving campaign for the school’s local community.