Courage Lab learners are naturally curious and hungry to learn. Like all children, they may need to grow in time management, goal setting and responsibility. However, when they have support and the value of what they are learning is clear they can be self-motivated and reach their goals. These learners are willing to take risks, fall, get back up, and try again.

✅ A self-paced, mastery-based learning environment where children are encouraged to take ownership of their education.

✅ A learning model that values creativity, problem-solving, and leadership as much as academic excellence.

✅ A small, supportive learning community that nurtures curiosity, resilience, and independence.

✅ A flexible and engaging school experience designed for the modern world.

Our school may not be a good fit for learners with persistent behavioral difficulties or learning difficulties beyond mild dyslexia and ADHD. While Courage Lab implements self-paced learning, there may not be enough resources specific to their particular needs for them to thrive here.

In addition, there may be some families for which Courage Lab is not a fit due to our approach to responsibility and embracing risk in learning. We want to allow students the opportunity to learn through natural consequences(safe ones, of course). This means the learners must complete all of their goals without parent intervention. If a learner decides not to prepare for a project, parents mustn't constantly nag, force or do the project for them. It is hard to watch our kids make mistakes-even after being warned! But those experiences of failure are great teachers. Such a failure can lead to discussions about why things didn’t go well and how to prepare next time. We want kids to fail early and often so that by the time they graduate they know how to come back stronger from failures and develop tenacity for real world problems beyond school.