10 Laws of Seeker

The cornerstone mission of our school is to flame the love for learning in each child. This is a careful and nurturing process based on respect and collaboration, designed to foster intrinsic motivation, curiosity, and independence.

In contrast, the use of force and authoritarian control stultifies a child’s natural desire to learn. This can lead to disengaged and unmotivated children, which then “requires” more rules and external incentives.

In a situation where we do not see the behavior we would like to see, it is likely the fault of the system we impose, and not necessarily the fault of the child.

As such, to establish a love for learning in each child, our school—its building, its people, its culture, and its curriculum—should all feel inviting.

Small repeated decisions develop habits, habits develop character, characters build a culture. You shape the culture, and the culture shapes you.

Our culture is sacred at Seeker. We act with intent, honesty, humility, curiosity, bravery, responsibility and joy. This is an active engagement with people you belong to, and who belong to you.

We may face small choices where it would be easier or more convenient to let something slide, but if we put in a little effort in those moments to strengthen and uphold the culture we value, we are the culture.

Therefore, we ask anyone in, at, or around our school to address any issues that may harm the school culture immediately, even if it may not be convenient.

We notice a stark contrast between the trends in children’s education and those in the working world. In the working world, there seems to be a growing focus on a healthy work-life balance, where work is valued at work, and family time is valued at home.

However, in children’s education, the amount of homework has been steadily increasing. This means that children are forced to spend extra time working on schoolwork at home that could otherwise be spent with family, friends or playing sports. On top of this we’ve seen children struggling with the increasing amounts of homework, so much so that one in three families in The Netherlands are paying extra for homework guidance in one form or another.

At Seeker we work hard when we are at school, and when school is done, school is done. Time to spend time with family, friends and play sports - guilt-free. Therefore, we have no homework, because family time, playing with friends and engaging in sports are equally important as school.

Graded tests make sense from a top-down perspective, but very little from a learner’s viewpoint.

When a school, or society at large, wants to see whether or not the children are actually learning, they could introduce an intervening test with grades on performance on that test. A high score means that the child has learned well, a low score means that the child has not learned well. Although this looks like a simple solution, it tends to create a number of unintended problems.

Problem 1 - Narrow focus
Standardized tests often emphasize rote memorization and test-taking strategies over deeper understanding and critical thinking skills. These tests typically focus on a narrow range of subjects and skills, failing to capture important areas like creativity in problem solving, or social skills like applied empathy, negotiation and bravery.

A test is a moment’s snapshot of performance. It does not take into account whether the child is having a good or a bad day, whether they are on the brink of understanding the subject, or how far they may be beyond the subject.

Problem 2 - Wrong incentives for children
Graded tests create wrong incentives for children. When a child is primarily evaluated on his test grades, the test grades naturally become the sole purpose instead of actual learning and development. Questions like “How does that work?” and “Why did that happen?”, get replaced with “What will be on the test?” and “Will this be on the test? (otherwise why would I bother learning this)”.

An emphasis on grades can shift the focus away from genuine learning and understanding, leading students to prioritize grades over curiosity and exploration.

Problem 3 - Wrong incentives for educators
Graded tests create wrong incentives for teachers and schools. When teachers and schools are primarily evaluated on the test grades of the children, they are incentivized to teach to the test. This all goes at cost off curriculum flexibility and actual integrated learning towards real understanding and real goals.

Problem 4 - Administrative work
Grading tests warrants a lot of administrative work on behalf of the teacher. Teachers spend hours a week grading tests. This is time and energy that could be spend on developing the learning curriculum and paying close attention to the development of each individual child.

Problem 5 - Blocks innovation
The rigidity of a graded tests system blocks innovation and adaptation of new technologies. New technologies are used by children in relation to their given prime incentive: a high test score. In other words, new tech is used to “cheat”. This leads schools to forbid the use of important new technologies like smartphones and AI language models. This creates an ever growing gap between the school curriculum and the real working world.

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Instead, assessment should focus on individual progress, understanding, and the development of skills, rather than comparing students against one another.

We have therefore decided that at our school we do not use graded tests. How do we measure the children’s performance instead? By tracking their online progress, real-life showcases, and by the children’s ever developing portfolios.

What is a portfolio? Think of it as your child’s LinkedIn - continually updated with their latest skills and accomplishments.

Partially because of the rigid graded tests system (new technologies are being used to “cheat”), most schools cannot afford to adopt new technologies, don’t know how to deal with them and often end up forbidding them, even though they may be of growing importance in the real world. Clear examples are smartphones, social media and AI language models.

All these new technologies are powerful tools that can be used for good and for evil. When schools forbid these technologies they get further and further disattached from the working real world, and leave the children who graduate the schools unable to use these powerful tools for good, and worse, fall pray to the dangers of them.

At Seeker we keep a keen eye on the development of such powerful technologies and incorporate them in our curriculum. Together we learn what they are about, what they can do, what they appear to do to society, what good can be done with them, what evil can be done with them, how do we use it effectively, and how do we not fall pray to their dangers.

For age group 4-6 however, where hands on learning is paramount, the learning space is kept free from screens and technologies.

The second most important people in our school, after the children, are the teachers (guides). As guides they are role models of the school culture in the children’s adventure in education, and must therefore be the best they can be. A teacher must have the energy and clarity to be alert, observant, caring, inspiring, compassionate, understanding and a clear communicator. A teacher therefore cannot be hungry, tired, grumpy, bitter, or resentful.

How do we take care of our great guides?

• We focus on the mental and physical health of everyone at the school, including the children, teachers, direction and other staff (see the 7th law).

• The teachers are not stuck in repeating the same lesson books year after year (see the 9th law).

• The teachers have no tests to review and grade (see the 4th law).

• The teachers have no homework to check (see the 3rd law).

• At our school, teachers have the time and support to serve the children directly and individually.

• Just like the children, we ensure everyone on our staff is on a developing upward-aiming journey themselves.

• Our guides are adequately compensated for their valuable work.

Life exists out of roughly 6 subjects you can spend your time on: health, love (spouse), family, friends, work, and hedonism. The one that all others depend on, is health.

The main levers we can control to influence our health are:

• Sleep

• Exercise

• Diet

• Mental clarity

• A goal to work towards.

Sleep
As a school we have the least control over this factor, yet it may be the most important contributor to good health. Among others, sleep promotes mental performance, muscle regeneration and strengthens the immune system. We therefore ask families and staff to take adequate sleep very seriously.

Recommended sleep per age:

• Age 3-6: 10-13 hours per day.

• Age 6-12: 9-12 hours per day.

• Age 12-18: 8-10 hours per day. With a delayed circadian rhythm (stay up late, sleep in late).

• Age 18-60: minimum of 7 hours per day.

Main levers to control good sleep:

• Routines. Every day, go to bed at the same time, with a bedtime routine, and wake up at the same time.

• Enough exercise during the day.

• No screen time hours before sleep.

• No caffeine or alcohol consumption.

Exercise
At school we make sure we get adequate outdoor time play, gym classes and sports workshops.

Diet
At school we avoid refined sugars, empty carbohydrates and E-numbers as much as possible. We serve food made from fresh whole ingredients.

Mental clarity
We start each day with a short 5-10 minutes guided meditation session to leave the busy morning behind us and focus on the work ahead.

A goal to work towards.
Having a goal to work towards reshapes our vision of the world from a misty jungle of chaos, into a landscape of tools and obstacles. At school we ensure everyone has developmental goals, tracks them and learns how to set new goals.

The children’s work and development is paramount and should not be interrupted by the illness / absence of the guide. We maintain a maximum of 12 children per guide. This means that a full sized class has multiple teachers.

Teaching is not just about providing answers or transferring information, but about guiding children to discover answers for themselves and fostering critical thinking.

Example: learn someone’s name.

• Option 1: Someone tell’s you the person’s name.

• Option 2: You go on social media, find the person via friend connections, and write the person a handwritten birthday card.

After which option do you best remember the name? The answer for most people is option 2. By active exploration and struggle, actual learning happens. Side benefits of this proactive method: resourcefulness, detective work, applied language, problem solving, critical thinking.

Questions become not a moment of being "stuck" and passively waiting for help, but a focal point for the next exploration.

With this method guides treat each child with faith and respect. Instead of the underlying message “I have all the answers, pay attention and absorb.”, the message our guides portray is: "We have high expectations and we know you can reach them."

The exception to this law is only to answer questions about the basic school rules and practicalities.

Think of your child as a little CEO in charge of their learning adventure. At school their team consists out of their peers and guides. At home their team consists out of their parents (you) and family. What this CEO demands of us is that the two teams are aligned in our support and goals. Therefore we aim to be as transparant a school as can be.

How? A lot of information on our website. Always available to talk to guides or director. Insight into the online progress of your child. Insight in the development of the online portfolios and journals of your child. Participation in parent-school evaluations. Invitations to all showcases. Heads-up on upcoming curriculum and quick notes on changes in the schedule. But most importantly we hope you notice excitement, curiosity and development in your child.

We are incredibly grateful for the trust that parents put in us - and hope to exceed your expectations.