‘Education should be something different’: Koch-funded school almost ready to open

Piece by piece — from a 48-foot “flying carpet” seating arrangement to Wiki Booths and outdoor climbing structures — Wichita’s newest experiment in education is coming together on the Wichita State University campus.

Wonder, a private school financed by members of the Koch family, will open Sept. 4 with 39 students.

“Education can and should be something different,” said Zach Lahn, Wonder’s co-founder.

“We’re preparing them for when they leave school to be successful in the world, in whatever way they choose that to be. That’s really how we framed up the question as we went out and searched and toured other schools,” he said.

The Eagle first reported in February that Chase and Annie Koch, the son and daughter-in-law of Koch Industries chief Charles Koch, were financing a new pre-K-through-12th-grade school, which is being built in a former print shop on the WSU campus.

The school, called Wonder, is preparing to open for preschool and elementary-age children this fall. Plans call for middle- and high-school programs to be phased in over time, and the founders have signed a preliminary ground lease for a larger site on WSU’s Innovation Campus.

During a tour of the new school Wednesday morning, Lahn and Annie Koch said it has come together according to plan, for the most part.

With one notable exception: Some families won’t be paying the $10,000-a-year tuition for elementary-age children or $6,500 a year for preschoolers.

“We have a wide range of families, and we have students on financial aid that are going to be starting with us,” Lahn said.

“We did not ask any family we met with if they could pay tuition,” he said. “We talked to them about what the school was, told them what the tuition was. But we’ve had numerous families ask us if we could do some sort of financial aid arrangement, and we’ve worked that out.”

Modeled after schools such as Acton Academy in Austin, Texas, and NuVu Studio in Cambridge, Mass., Wonder incorporates facets of the “Maker movement” and other education innovations, including project-based lessons without traditional courses, subjects, grades or classrooms.

The first level, Wonder One, is a Montessori-model preschool for 3- to 6-year-olds, with activities divided into key areas of learning, such as practical life, math, language and culture.

An accordion glass wall separates the preschool from Wonder Two, a studio for 7- to 11-year-olds, which features standing desks, flexible seating and a wall that illustrates “The Hero’s Journey,” a story arc made popular by literature professor Joseph Campbell. According to Campbell’s theory, all narratives, from “The Odyssey” to “Star Wars,” are variations of a single mythic story.

“We want students to understand that . . . we’re all on this hero’s journey,” Lahn said. “By the end, you’ve conquered big battles — or, as Campbell would say, dragons — and you’re coming back and you’re sharing with the community. That’s a theme that we have throughout the school.”

Wonder students will spend half their day in the school’s design studio, a converted garage with a stage at one end that opens onto an outdoor play area. Two full-time coaches will lead lessons: Resha Parajuli, who has a master’s in astrophysics from Clemson and a master’s of innovation design from WSU; and Rima Das, a mechanical engineer out of MIT who trained at NuVu Studio.

Wonder’s staff of six coaches and guides — the school doesn’t use the term “teacher” — reflects the founders’ goal of giving students more say in what, how and at what pace they learn, Lahn said.

Spencer Steinert, a McPherson native and entrepreneur who also hails from WSU’s master of innovation design program, will start each day with a Socratic discussion intended to spur children to ponder moral or ethical dilemmas.

“One of the things we’re talking about now is: Does the past determine the future?” Lahn said. “That’s a great question, because it discusses where you came from, where your family came from, and does that have a bearing on where you can go?”

One shelf in the Wonder Two studio holds about a dozen MacBook Air laptops still in their boxes. Each student will get his or her own computer and will use iPads for augmented reality activities, Lahn said.

The school’s library slowly is being stocked with new books, and one side features two Wiki Booths — semi-private workspaces designed for laptops or notepads that mimic old-fashioned telephone booths.

As part of the application process, parents were asked: If you had to suggest one book for a student in Wonder Four — the school’s future high school — what would it be? Those books are being added to the collection as well and include “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Atlas Shrugged,” “Lord of the Flies,” “How to Win Friends and Influence People,” “The Martian” and the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson.

Another corner of the library is stacked with meditation mats and cushions. Annie Koch plans to lead an optional morning meditation session for children each day, just prior to the 9 a.m. start time.

Annie Koch’s two sons, ages 6 and 4, and Lahn’s children, ages 5 and 4, will attend the school, they said.

“One of the keys when we set out to do this was we had to have skin in the game,” Lahn said. “If we were going to ask other people to go on this journey with us, we had to be willing to say, ‘This is what we think is the right way to go, and we believe that so much that the most important things in the world to us are going to be coming here with us.’”

The school will not seek accreditation through the Kansas Department of Education, which means it would not be required to follow state regulations, administer state tests or hire licensed teachers. It also means credits earned by its students would not transfer automatically to other schools or universities.

However, many colleges accept transcripts or portfolios from students from non-accredited schools — including homeschools — as part of their admissions process. Lahn said Wonder will seek accreditation through the International Association of Learner-Driven Schools, and he’s confident that its students will appeal to any number of colleges or potential employers.

“We have great metrics and reporting tools to show parents exactly how (their students) are progressing on math, reading, writing,” Lahn said. Eventually, students will compile portfolios that feature their projects and presentations over the years.

“If you’re an employer or a partner on a business venture, what’s more powerful — a grade in public speaking, or watching four years of videos . . . so you can see their style, their tempo?” he said. “You can see how they engage with a crowd, how articulate they are — all these different pieces. A grade doesn’t talk about that.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2018 at 5:50 AM.