Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Introducing Proof School

There's a new school for young people who love math: it's called Proof School. It will be located in San Francisco near waterfront, easily reached by public transit from all over the Bay Area, to insure maximum geographic (and other) diversity, and will serve students in grades 6 through 12. It opens in 2015.

It looks to me to be very promising: it has the potential to be the best school for mathematically gifted children in the country. The school contrasts markedly with almost all schools (including famous ones) in that the team has many mathematicians with PhDs.

I recently attended an information session about it, and thought I'd share some of what I learned. My memory of what was said is imperfect, and what was said isn't finalized, so what I say should be taken with a grain of salt.

• Class sizes will be 15.
• The school will tentatively be starting with students of grades 6, 7, 8, and 9.
• The school will proactively recruit girls, especially by starting with grade 6;
• Students will take the standard academic subjects in the morning and do math for 2.5 hours in the afternoon.
• The school will give high priority to maintaining efficiency so that little time is wasted and students have time to do both the standard academic subjects and the math.
• All students will study the same mathematical topic at the same time (with different classes aimed at students of different levels of sophistication), so that students can easily enroll in the section that's most appropriate for them.
• The school's goal is not to produce mathematicians, but to give a holistic education for children who love math.
• "Math" is defined broadly, including quantitative sciences.
• Students will be selected more based on interest than based on ability.
• The school will have a shuttle and will work to organize car pools so that students from around the greater Bay Area will be able to attend.
• The school ultimately aims to become a cultural hub for mathematics in the Bay Area (with lectures for the general public given after school).

It sounds great.

Did they discuss how they will have everyone do the same topics at the same time with a population selected for interest but not aptitude? It seems they'd have even more problems with pacing than a standard classroom. And to inspire passion, would they not want to follow the interest of a given student/group of students rather than being restricted to the topics the whole school is doing that month?

IME with elementary school kids they need to account for level, pace and processing speed when dividing into math groups which means one group of kids working at a fifth grade level in August gets divided into at least four groups (normal/fast pace, normal/slow processing speed). And these are kids within 2 sd IQ of each other.

I might go and look at their website, that's probably the place to answer my questions.

I think few kids who aren't good at math want to study it for 2.5 hours every day at a math-focused school. Also, the site http://proofschool.org/faq/ says they are looking for the "truly talented" at math:

I am one of the founders of this school, and will briefly clarify a few points:

For math, we plan to have 5 or more classes running simultaneously at different levels, covering similar topics. For example, a child may be strong with geometry and she will take a fairly advanced class, but may be weaker in number theory and work at a more elementary level. The classes will be intensive, but in fairly short blocks. This allows for a very customized experience. Our goal is not to waste students' time!

Re "talent" vs. "passion," neither of these terms are completely objectively definable. We are not interested in acceleration or precocity for their own sake, but recognize that both will be present in many of our students, and we will be fully able to handle this (our hiring will be extremely selective). However, the most important of these two words is "passion," since what will matter, in the long run, is an internally-motivated desire to spend lots and lots of time thinking about math. A somewhat less-talented student who really wants to spend 2.5 hours a day may go further than a more-talented student who is less keen to work hard.

I just had a lovely phone conversation with Ian Brown, one of the founders, and have notes to share. (These are paraphrases from my notes, please don't take them as quotes.)

How will commuting work from the Peninsula/South Bay?
We are committed to making commuting work from the South Bay. Right now there are two main possibilities: a school-owned shuttle picking up along the Peninsula, or a chaperoned Caltrain ride where students are met at the platform and escorted all the way to school in a group.
The school motto is NO WASTED TIME and this will be addressed during commuting as well. We're looking into options for making the ride useful. For instance, if a teacher were to live in San Jose and ride all the way up, there could be informal discussions on the train or shuttle that students join as they get on. This would make the commute a positive learning experience.
School will start late enough to make commuting practical, possibly 8:45. [He was responsive to concerns here and it sounds like start time will move back as needed.]

How big will you be? How will electives that usually require a large student body work?
We will start small and grow - initially 40-60 students. We will offer what we can and intend to outsource a lot of electives by taking advantage of programs from San Francisco institutions that serve school groups.

What about homework?
Overall: Less Is More. In general, if you can't get it done in a long school day plus commute time - it's too much.
There will be little homework in the mathematical sciences (such as algebra, number theory, programming, theoretical physics) because we already devote so much time in the afternoon block and evening programs to these subjects. (There will be a regular schedule of evening programs with visiting experts, seminars, student presentations, etc.) There may be a bit more, though manageable, in the other subjects because there's less class time. But overall, with the best content and teaching, homework adds very little. We're teaching that work is a joy, is purposeful, and excessive homework doesn't help with that. Kids need time to sleep, have fun, do extracurriculars, see friends. NO WASTED TIME does not mean no downtime; downtime and playtime are important.

And curriculum?
We will be getting WASC accreditation.
We will not be offering official AP courses, though we will assist students who have a personal goal of taking an AP test.

Will that make it harder to get acceptance into college?
In short, NO. Most of the kids here will be going into math or math related departments and all those departments already know about Proof School. They are already asking how they will be able to serve our graduates, who will already have learned what they teach in an undergraduate math degree. Many universities are going into portfolio based admissions anyway and our portfolios will be very strong.

How can I know if Proof is a fit or not?
Come to our Previews in late August to try out a sample half-day of school.

The online info sounds really promising. Too bad my son is too old for it (will be in 11th in 2015) and we don't live in the area (although we do have relatives that do). My son does fit the the description of the type of students that would fit. I was pleased to hear last night that even a no so great teacher & not so hot grades, hasn't dampened my son's enthusiasm for math.

There seem to be lot of posts about alternative schools particularly for the junior high age are centered in the Bay Area. I know of several others.

What I am curious about it's there doesn't seem to be a lot of description of classes than are not specifically math related, such as English, History, language. I don't get the impression that it's very well fleshed out yet.

They seem to have quite a vision for what they want, but haven't yet hired a dean for that side of the academics. If you know a candidate I'm sure they'd love to hear from you.

Presumably that will be much clearer 6 months from now, before they begin even early admissions for the first year.

It's a very intriguing idea. Too bad it's so far away from us (50 miles or so). My kids have been commuting only 15 miles one way through traffic to school for two years, and it's a big drag. I can't even imagine putting them on an hour-long one-way train ride to San Francisco. It's too bad, because it really does sound like a potentially fabulous school.

I find it very interesting that they decided to locate the school in San Francisco, rather than down in Silicon Valley. I can't help but wonder if they've restricted their pool of potential students due to 1) geography (water on 3 sides of a small city), and 2) the extreme difficulties of getting into and out of San Francisco. I'd also expect that the concentration of mathy types in this area is much higher down here in the valley, where we're very much in need of new private high schools.

A forty hour commute won't work either, lol. Yesterday, I chatted with a math instructor from the middle school that the local public HG program feeds to. He said that they make calculus available but it is done using an online program. It does seem a pity that DS is on a path to solo math from now until he is taking university courses.

@ Val — San Francisco is more centrally located (close to Marin, Oakland, Berkeley and Walnut Creek). But I agree that the concentration of mathy types in Silicon Valley is higher.

Apparently we're not so far away from one another – I live in Berkeley.