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The Socratic Experience
The Socratic Experience is the meaningful, purpose-driven education we wish we had had, combining classical education with self-directed learning. Socratic intellectual inquiry based on classic and contemporary texts is at the core. Students learn to analyze texts to provide evidence-based interpretations.
They learn to organize their thoughts in structured essays on topics they are passionate about (because they just argued with their friends about them!). They learn mathematical problem-solving by means of frequent encounters with challenging problems and an ongoing exploration of strategies for solving such problems.
At the same time, they are encouraged to focus on personal projects that allow them to explore their own interests, with one-one coaching each week that includes guidance on projects, academic goals, and post high school goals.
This is complemented by daily group conversations on how we can be our best selves, how we can manage the challenge of being a responsible, thoughtful human being in the challenging environment in which young people find themselves today. We develop a peer culture in which the norm is that each member of our community is a purpose-driven young person who owns their own education in light of goals that are valuable to them. We support the development of these individual goals through the ongoing exploration of the purpose diagram.
one of the most experienced designers of innovative school programs in the united states
Michael Strong is one of the most experienced designers of innovative school programs in the United States. His projects include a public school program in which minority female students gained four years’ worth of critical thinking gains in four months (on the Watson-Glaser). He later went into Montessori secondary school program design at The Judson Montessori School (San Antonio), The Emerson School, and Hacienda School. He created The Winston Academy, where middle school students passed AP exams, making it the most academically advanced school in the country at the time.
Another of Michael’s projects, Moreno Valley High School, a Paideia charter high school, was ranked the 36th-best U.S. public high school by Newsweek. More recently he co-founded KoSchool in Austin, Texas, which combined his high-performance approach to AP coursework and SAT score gains with a focus on entrepreneurial and creative projects. KoSchool, in turn, became the original model for The Academy of Thought and Industry, the high school model for the largest Montessori network in the United States.
Students from Michael’s schools have been admitted to Harvard, Stanford, Georgetown, Smith, Bard, Bennington, McGill, UT-Austin, University of Colorado, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Parsons School of Design, Quest, St. John’s and many dozens of other post-secondary institutions.
He is the author of The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice and lead author of Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the World’s Problems.
We seek educators who themselves love learning, who love young people, and who love mentoring young people within our personalized program. We are fundamentally a learning organization, and create an esprit de corp in which learning is life and life is learning for us all.
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Lea Pitkanen, Socratic Humanities Guide, grew up in northern Virginia but has lived in (and camped in and explored) many states, having landed in Phoenix, AZ. She has been riding and training horses almost daily since age two and was a dog handler at a Wisconsin Humane Society. She began teaching horsemanship while a member of the United States Pony Club, from which she graduated as an H-A. She studied in three programs at St. John’s College: The Undergraduate Liberal Arts Program, the Masters Program in Eastern Classics, and a dense summer program in Islamic Classics. She coordinated the America Reads AmeriCorps Program for two years through Earlham College and the community elementary schools in Richmond, Indiana. She taught at Athenuem, a school Michael Strong helped start in Alaska, before proceeding to teach at his Moreno Valley High School in New Mexico. She is currently raising her three year old daughter in alignment with Montessori’s practices with her husband, a fellow Socratic seminar practitioner. Before joining The Socratic Experience this year, she taught at Chandler Preparatory Academy, a classics charter school in Phoenix, for fourteen years. Each and every of her teaching engagements has been purely Socratic. In a way, that is even true when her students are horses and dogs.
Büşra (pronounced Boosh-RA) leads Mathematics and Science for TSE’s middle school. She moved from Turkey to Santa Fe, NM, to study the Great Books program at St. John’s College. Her enthusiasm for STEM, however, became more apparent. Through rediscovering the inner child who was genuinely interested in everything, Büşra became one of the most active students in STEM-related discussions.
Büşra’s inquisitive nature as a child would often cause her trouble. As a result, she takes every question she encountered seriously. It became apparent to her that genuine questions were gateways into a deeply-rooted quest for understanding. This became for her the basic principle of guiding anyone through the process of learning.
Büşra has taught subjects ranging from science to singing, one of her life-long passions, and even to kayaking. Currently, Büşra is taking courses in Music and Mathematics to enhance her own understanding of the world we live in. Büşra is determined to be a life-long learner who sparks a similar kind of desire in anyone she gets a chance to guide.
She currently lives in Istanbul, Turkey.
Francisco leads TSE’s Community and Socratic sessions. He is dedicated to helping turn TSE into the best learning community in the world through highly personalized mentorship and coaching.
When Francisco graduated from high school, he was at a crossroads: he wanted to continue learning, but every place he knew that was meant for “learning” was boring and unimaginative. Resolved to solve that problem, he became a high-school teacher, which he had once vowed never to become. Determined not to bore himself and others, he broke every teaching rule. His classes seemed chaotic; there were no rows, no tests, very few assignments, and lots of chatter. Unsurprisingly, he and his students learned to love learning; they shared ideas, read books together, and built very cool things. He eventually got caught and was awarded the “Excellence in Teaching Innovation Award” at his school. Francisco has interned at the Academy of Thought and Industry with Michael Strong, founder of TSE.
He also has years of international teaching experience at and designed courses for schools and institutions in Central Mexico, Beijing, and Oxford.
Francisco is a graduate of St. John’s College and holds a certificate in Great Books pedagogy.
Kenton was homeschooled, always preferring a self-directed approach to learning. Around the age of five, he began drawing daily and got his first sketchbook. Kenton filled many sketchbooks, and though Kenton tried some art classes, he quickly discovered that he gained more from a mentoring relationship than from traditional art lessons. He has been learning from Gabriel Valles at Mentorwings Academy since 2015. There, he freely developed his drawing skills in accordance with his own personal goals. Kenton has been teaching drawing to individuals and small groups since 2017 using the same student-led approach to teaching that he enjoyed.
Albert Loan is a professor at Acton MBA at UFM in Guatemala City,
Guatemala. He did his undergraduate and graduate work in Economics at
George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and also received a
Masters of Education from Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts.
He is a trained Montessori teacher with credentials in Secondary I and
Secondary II from the American Montessori Association. Since 1995 he
has been employing Socratic Practice and a host of discovery learning
and collaborative methodologies in his teaching practice. He has spent
many years teaching at the middle, high school, undergraduate, and
post-graduate level. In 2016 he established Polycentric Learning
Group, which helps businesses, schools, and organizations cultivate
their own learning culture. His interest in both economics and
pedagogy led him to the study of organizational culture and
alternative forms of corporate governance and in 2018 and 2019
completed Holacracy Practitioner’s Training and Holacracy Coach’s
Training. Albert is originally from Upstate New York.
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Luis was born in Guatemala city, Guatemala. At fourteen, he learned a passion for writing, poetry, and more generally, story telling. At eighteen, after graduating High School, he went on to study Political Science for a mere semester at Universidad Francisco Marroquin, before transferring and embarking on a seven-year-long journey into the classical liberal arts. The last four years of this journey were spent at St. John’s College, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he got his bachelor’s degree, and where he currently resides teaching. His interests are wide-ranging, but lie mostly in education, economics, philosophy, literature, psychology, and wellness. He is an experienced Socratic practitioner, a fitness instructor with a CrossFit level 1 certificate, and a self-published author.
Magatte Wade is a serial entrepreneur, inspirational speaker, and visionary business leader with a passion for creating positive change in Africa. She is the founder and CEO of SkinIsSkin.com, “the lip balm with a mission,” and is dedicated to reducing racial discrimination while creating jobs and prosperity in her home country of Senegal. Throughout her career, she has created successful high-end retail brands inspired by diverse African traditions. She is a Forbes “20 Youngest Power Women in Africa”, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum at Davos, a TED Global Africa Fellow, and “Leading Woman in Wellness” award winner by the Global Wellness Summit. In 2014 she was featured on the cover of Forbes Afrique for being the person in Francophone Africa having the greatest positive impact on the future. She serves as the Director of the Atlas Network’s Center for African Prosperity. Wade also serves on the Advisory Board of the Whole Planet Foundation, of Whole Foods Market. She has written for The Guardian, HuffingtonPost.com, and Barron’s, and has been profiled by the NYT. She has spoken at numerous high profile venues including the U.N., The Clinton Global Initiative, the Aspen Institute, TED, Conscious Capitalism, and many dozens of universities including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, MIT, UC Berkeley, Dartmouth, and the Wharton School of Business.
Karen’s passion for education began in a home full of books on every subject! Her mother’s belief that learning is wondrous, and a privilege created a deep feeling of excitement for Karen. The message growing up was, “Always keep learning and exploring new things, no matter what you do; it opens the world to you”.
Karen studied English and French at university in Canada. This led her to explore language and history through literature. Karen was intrigued by the tension of language in her bilingual country and its link to identity. During this time, she also began exploring alternative pedagogies and volunteering with young children. Karen visited a Montessori school and was intrigued by the expansive environment and how the children interacted with one another. She decided to study to become a teacher and is celebrating thirty years in Montessori education this year.
Karen’s experience in education includes an extensive background in program and curriculum development. She has worked to strengthen and expand elementary and middle school programming for Montessori schools in Canada, China, Japan, and Norway. Karen’s interests have resulted in spearheading an adolescent syllabus designed to expand students’ humanities studies to include international studies and adventure travel.
Karen and her husband have two sons who are pursuing their passions of entrepreneurship, music, and political science in university. Over the past six years, they have lived and worked in China and Japan. Having the privilege to be a resident of different countries has enriched their lives in so many incredible ways. Administering schools abroad allowed Karen to experience education in a broader and universal context. Karen also mentors new teachers in Norway and she is excited to be exploring another amazing culture!
Karen considers it a privilege to connect with people who are creating programs that inspire young students and is very excited to be part of The Socratic Experience. Karen maintains that “school” should be about the feeling of curiosity and discovery; of great conversations and struggles that awaken new ideas and knowledge in us, and growing that empowers us to expand our views and contribute great things to the world.
With 10 years of experience accompanying and guiding students in many countries including México, Spain and the US., Mariana currently lives in Querétaro, a beautiful colonial city in México.
She gained a Bachelors of Education in Pedagogy (UNICEBA, Celaya, México), and an Expert degree in Early Childhood Intervention (LaSalle University, Madrid, Spain). She enjoys working with all kinds of students, including those with special needs. Working and inspiring the youth is the motivation driving her career, and led her to study AMI/NAMTA Montessori Orientation to Adolescent Studies (Hershey Montessori, Ohio).
Stephanie Schantz, STEM guide and online tutor, holds a BA in Mathematics and Biology from University of Montana. She taught undergraduate courses while earning her MA in Mathematics at Arizona State University, with a research focus on the benefits of play and games in math education. She taught Calculus I and II and coached soccer at a Phoenix-area charter school for four years before moving back to the Northwest. In Washington, she has worked in the public schools’ home-hospital program, connecting students and caregivers to academic resources while they are out of school. Along with caring for her own young son, she has devoted more of her time in recent years to her online tutoring business. She also serves as the bursar of The Video Game Academy.
