KIDS THESE DAYS…
… are extraordinary.
They deserve individualized approaches to their education. In contrast to traditional school settings, which often fall short of meeting the diverse needs of students, we offer a personalized, student-directed, teacher-facilitated, whole-person approach to learning that is tailored specifically to your child, for your child, and even by your child.
Our goal is to create a learning environment where your child can flourish and succeed, by embracing a forward-thinking, authentic, highest-quality, academy-style setting that fosters their unique and extraordinary potential.
There is no school with our perspective and philosophy of learning. We are one-of-a-kind, as are your children. We are the future, as are your children!
Learning Center Headquarters
30110 Crown Valley Parkway
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
In the small yet vibrant community at USASB, students from age 9 through age 14+ explore the world freely at their own pace and in their own unique ways. They are responsible for designing their path to adulthood.
Click here to request an interview and discuss the possibility of enrolling
EXPLORE ORANGE COUNTY
From January to December, 2024, USASB students have the opportunity to visit, learn about, and experience over 100 locations throughout Orange County.
Each day, students will spend a portion of their day at our learning center headquarters, and a portion of their day visiting new or familiar locations. Field trips will range from parks, trails, and beaches, to libraries, museums, performing arts centers, businesses, and recreational sites.
The Unschool Academy of Art, Science & Business is an indoor/outdoor, project-based, creative, alternative, and all-inclusive youth education opportunity and learning center.
Our academy operates a year-round, full-day schedule, providing a vibrant and dynamic learning center environment. Students can participate to the extent desired, including the number of hours per day, in-person, or partly online if desired, fostering maximum flexibility and accommodating individual preferences.
We are establishing our founding cohort of students at our temporary learning center headquarters at 30110 Crown Valley Parkway in Laguna Niguel, South Orange Country, California. We opened in January, 2024, with our year’s theme and focus of Exploring Orange County.
OUR MISSION
At the Unschool Academy of Art, Science, & Business, we are dedicated to creating a unique, forward-thinking, student-focused learning center and academic community where active, curious, independent, and caring students and their teachers embark on a journey of exploration, discovery, and growth.
Our mission is to cultivate an environment where students and teachers thrive as they express and develop their true and authentic selves. We believe fostering a dynamic and inclusive atmosphere, where everyone is encouraged to be both a learner and a teacher, leads to profound personal and academic development.
Students and teachers will learn in ways impossible at any other PK-12 school setting, public, private, magnet, or charter. Imagine in some ways a top-tier college or university, but for children, youth… and teachers.
WHO WE SERVE
Students
We have a clear vision of education that centers on empowering our students, viewing them as unique individuals who not only learn but are integral to the leadership, design, and development of our vibrant learning community. Our approach is rooted in fostering autonomous, self-directed learning, where students and teachers grow together, valuing diversity, democracy, culture, self-confidence, and critical inquiry.
Teachers
Our vision of education extends beyond students to the very heart of our learning community: our dedicated teachers. We recognize the individuality of each teacher and their crucial role in cultivating a vibrant, collaborative environment for learning and growth. Our approach values autonomy, respect, trust, and continuous development for educators, who are also learners, and doers.
Parents
We recognize parents' crucial role in their children's education and actively foster a collaborative relationship between parents, students, and teachers. We value parental involvement and respect parents' and students' autonomy and self-direction in shaping their educational journey.
We don’t make people do things they don’t want to do.
What Does a Week Look Like at USASB?
Here’s what a sample week might look like at the Unschool Academy of Art, Science, & Business:
Monday
Morning - Free play and exploration, individual instruction, project work.
Afternoon - Field trip to a local park; Assembly (students and teachers) meeting.
Tuesday
Morning - Free play and exploration, individual instruction, project work; Judiciary meeting.
Afternoon - Field trip to a trails.
Wednesday
Morning - Free play and exploration, individual instruction, project work.
Afternoon - Field trip to a business site, then to an Orange County library.
Thursday
Morning - Free play and exploration, individual instruction, project work.
Afternoon - Field trip to a local sports park; Teacher meeting.
Friday
Morning - Free play and exploration, individual instruction, project work.
Afternoon - Field trip to a beach.
How Do Our Students Learn at USASB?
Students learn by doing.
Students learn in the ways they learn best.
Students learn by diving deeply into content and skills, and spending the time they need to accomplish what they want to accomplish.
Students learn by watching others, solving problems together, and collaborating on projects as part of a team.
Students learn by preparing proposals, managing projects, leading teams, supervising budgets, and presenting results to peers.
Students learn by receiving individual instruction, one-on-one, with a teacher.
Will my student learn to read?
Yes! We teach reading, writing, and arithmetic! As well as a host of other useful content and skills. We just do it in developmentally-appropriate ways, in ways your child enjoys and finds rewarding, and in ways that serve each individual student’s learning styles, needs, and interests. We don’t follow a timeline, we don’t teach to the test, and we don’t use terms such as “at grade level” or make other unnecessary and harmful comparisons or use tracking devices. We “follow the child,” we allow students to direct their own learning (to the extent desired), and we encourage students to take ownership of their lives, their education, and to develop authentically - according to their own needs, desires, and interests, and not according to the beliefs, assumptions, interests, and demands of others.
Yes! Students learn to read and write! They learn math! They learn science, art and communication, technology, political science… and they develop finance and business skills!
Students learn more, not less, at the Unschool Academy of Art, Science, & Business. Students retain more, not less, at USASB. Students learn more deeply, less superficially, than students at other schools. Because our students’ learning has meaning.
Students learn about democracy.
Students live, work, and study within a functional democracy - the academy! Students participate in, to the extent desired, all decision-making, rule-making, voting, and procedures, and hold important positions within the operation of the academy.
Students learn about political and judiciary systems.
Students participate in the political and judiciary systems at the academy. Students propose rules, vote on rules, propose consequences, vote on consequences, and run the judiciary committee. The judiciary committee, made up of term-elected students and teachers, operates the academy’s system of justice and courts.
Students learn about finance and budgets.
Students aren’t handed everything on a silver platter. Students don’t sit around waiting to be told what to do next. Students define their needs and wants, and put together project proposals to make them happen. Projects are approved by a committee of peers (students and teachers) and/or the owner of a particular domain. Projects receive funding and/or are self-funded by students, teachers, and/or student-and-teacher teams. Students manage project budgets and project teams in order to get things done!
Students can even design, develop, and launch businesses.
Students create and invent.
Whether it’s in the arts, sciences, business or any other field of endeavor, students have the freedom, autonomy, and encouragement to create and invent. At USASB Unschool Academy of Art, Science, & Business, we encourage and facilitate true critical thinking among students and teachers. We aren’t in the business of telling other people what to think, and when, as are most schools. We encourage our students - and teachers - to think critically. To explore, to discover, to research, to investigate, to question, to challenge, and to experiment. And the result of this critical thinking is more creativity, more inventiveness, and more entrepreneurship.
Students participate in the arts, music, theater, dance, multi-media, film, video, communications, language, graphic design, and architecture. Students participate in the sciences, the environment, nature, human development and psychology, education, political science, information systems, technology, robotics, and even “artificial intelligence.” Students participate in business, professional development, finance and recordkeeping, marketing and sales, research and development, project management, fundraising, and entrepreneurship.
Students learn by receiving individual instruction.
Students receive individual, private, one-on-one (1:1), and small-group instruction with a teacher. Students are not herded into classrooms to sit and listen, and teachers are neither forced nor coerced to teach generic predefined curriculum to classes-full of students. So students and teachers have plenty of time to learn and to teach as individuals and small groups in more private, focused settings, in a more personalized, customized manner, using more individualized teaching and learning strategies and methods.
Be a part of our founding cohort!
And Explore Orange County in 2024!
