Springboard Network Inc. is newly-founded; its mission is not.
2,500 years ago, Aristotle made plain that education is in the interest of all citizens for a somewhat-similar underlying reason we hold today — in ancient Greece, they elected their leaders. Luckily, today however, not only the “elite” get to lead. The future is indeed in the hands of every youth. Their readiness and their well-being cannot be overlooked, not by any adult. Why? Just naturally beings of the polis, humans are interdependent, form groups, and only thrive in community. Community forms first by “the adults” in charge.
Yet, we today still have not realized the power of these observations in the realm of education. We have a public school system for which we are truly grateful, but such statewide systems may not fit everyone’s needs. We also have unaffordable (for most) private institutions, parochial schools which impose metaphysical dictates, and charter schools that bring new hope but are not always accessible or a right fit. Finally, we have the homeschoolers — and the new generation of this community includes: teens independent enough to meet requirements but who want and can achieve more; teens who cannot learn in large groups or online; teens who are young experts and need to travel or keep a schedule that simply cannot work with conventional school scheduling; and, even teens whose well-being is at stake, whether they’ve been bullied or otherwise have real need that makes conventional schooling a non-option.
The adults in this realm, then, face challenging our values toward and enactment of decentralized education. We can’t fix it all, but Springboard Network Inc. has arrived to play its part. Learn how every adult can contribute and why it’s a darn-good idea, even if crystallized only under one true notion: our teens are our immediate next leaders, voters, and shapers of the community for all of us.
Springboard’s
Founder & Director
Krista Retto
Education is in the interest
of all citizens
PARENTS
INSTRUCTORS
CITIZENS
NYC parents of teens who are considering or who have chosen to homeschool, we respect and support your strength of choice. As parent-administrators, we also realize your pains:
- Teaching and managing academic needs that span so many complex subjects
- Working through the DoE requirements to ensure compliance is confusing and they’re understaffed
- Sourcing and vetting supplemental instructors (and affording and trusting them)
- Assessing certain aptitudes and levels
- Child loneliness, as well as finding secular, safe, and mindful social groupings
- Parental exhaustion; lack of teen motivation
We’re here as both sounding board through consultations and as springboard with community resources and our vetted matching service Project SOME.
Independent, retired, and adjunct professors as well as doctoral candidates and vertical experts come to Springboard for a multitude of reasons:
- Locating students for individual tutoring is Sisyphus-like
- Teaching in-home or traveling for tutelage bring disadvantages in materials, safety, and cost
- Management of scheduling, accounting, and other professional woes
- Instructor isolation
We’re here as both sounding board and springboard.
You impact us; we impact you — let’s work together! Caring is an action verb, requiring more than a good intention or best wishes. The instructors need tools. Your community’s parents need scholarship funds. Our future fellow citizens, the teens, need you.
- Donate old computers and iPads
- Are you an expert at something but don’t want to teach? Offer up a guest lecture!
- Let us help you arrange a one-on-one donation with a family. It can be as little as $350 and will buy a teen a course that can change the very course of their life
- Host a class in your art gallery; send in your books
