The blog
100 Reasons for $100 Million
The story, the philosophy, and the people behind the school we're building.
- Reason #1 .a
A Personal Journey — The Learner
Eight schools in thirteen years, an hour-and-a-half bus commute, and the cost of dishonesty: how growing up between two school systems made me believe in what education could be.
- Reason #1 .b
A Personal Journey — The Teacher
An F-bomb on day one, a 100% policy, a tattoo metaphor, and a dragon down the arm: lessons from years of teaching math at progressive charter schools — and the politics that pushed me out.
- Reason #1 .c
A Personal Journey — The Visionary
A walk through Venice, a sign reading 'Apprentice work, cash only,' and a vision of Amy's fifth-grade day where math, music, history and PE braid into one woven curriculum.
- Reason #2 pillar
Community
A model neighborhood built from index cards, a year-long Geometry project, and a reunion at Balboa Park four years later: why community is one of AotR's six pillars.
- Reason #3 pillar
Learning
Sandra Angle on the AHA! moments that rarely happen in classrooms — and what we know about how the brain actually learns through imitation, repetition, exploration, and play.
- Reason #4 pillar
Mastery of Strengths
Adrianne Blake reconnects with Lucas, a student whose love of math became a banking career, and why building on each student's strengths matters more than treating every subject as equal.
- Reason #5 pillar
Intergenerational Learning and Teaching
Thomas, the eighth-grade class clown, records a hip-hop album to teach fourth-grade lessons — and shows why passing knowledge between generations is one of education's oldest tools.
- Reason #6 pillar
Accountability
Lindsey Mancillas on a sixth-grader who blamed everyone but himself — until accountability replaced excuses, and his grades followed.
- Reason #7 pillar
Character Development
Cursive words on the wall of a third-grade classroom — Honor, Service, Courage — and a Good Citizenship medal that still shapes what AotR considers character.
- Reason #8 value
Perseverance
Ruben, 36, refuses to be the Navy's potato peeler. To get there he has to master his times tables — under six minutes, every time — before his next tutoring session begins.
- Reason #9 value
Empowerment
Thirty eighth-graders building two-string jewelry-box guitars with power tools. The skeptics worried about safety; by year-end the same students had gone from 'far below basic' to 'basic' on state tests.
- Reason #10 value
Integrity
Luis, a third-grader, quietly fixes other team leaders' mistakes at the end of every lesson — and reveals why integrity is the trait most schools never explicitly teach.
- Reason #11 theme
Understanding the Past
I hated history class as a kid. Then I had to teach it. Inspired by a tour of Italy, this is why 'understanding the past' became the first line of our tagline.
- Reason #12 theme
Creating the Present
Students keep their projects for decades — they never keep a worksheet. Why creating, the highest level of Bloom's Taxonomy, is the second line of our tagline.
- Reason #13 theme
Imagining the Future
An eighth-grader stares out the open door and imagines a Roomba that mows lawns. Why daydreaming, often punished, is the third line of our tagline — imagining the future.
- Reason #14
Academic Enterprises
Alejandro brings $1,060 to math class on Monday — money he earned striping parking lots over the weekend. How student-run businesses turn classroom theory into real economics.
- Reason #15
Everyone Teaches
A staff meeting that felt different: at this school, the administrators also taught classes. Why AotR will require every administrator and counselor to teach.
- Reason #16
Autonomy for Teachers
"Give me full autonomy and I'll get 90% of our students passing — or tell me how to teach next year." A challenge to a principal, and a year that ended with 92%.
- Reason #17
Autonomy for Students
A Godzilla rampaging through a city, drawn with 150 linear equations. How giving students room to express themselves turns 'do the minimum' into overachievement.
- Reason #18
Having the Right Mindset
A Vietnamese morning ritual involving tofu, peanuts, and a pun-translation that doubles as a pre-test mantra. Why mindset is part of everything we do.
- Reason #19
The Art of Explaining
Seven different ways to explain the Nash Equilibrium before the lightbulb finally clicked. Why 'teaching' and 'explaining' aren't the same thing — and why every great teacher learns to do both.
- Reason #20
Proactive vs Reactive Education
Sandra Angle's advice to a first-year teacher: call every parent in month one. A short comparison chart of proactive vs reactive teaching, and why one beats the other in every category.
- Reason #21
Motivation
What pulls students into learning when nothing in the syllabus will — and how AotR plans to build motivation into the curriculum, not bolt it on afterwards.
- Reason #22
High Expectations with Support
Setting the bar high only works if the safety net is wider than the leap. How high expectations paired with real support turn 'I can't' into 'I just did.'
- Reason #23
Content is Secondary
Former student Ajani Sanders remembers Question Mondays and a Quote of the Week — and why teaching math (or any subject) was always secondary to building a community of learners.