About
A school where kids decide how to spend their day, with adults beside them.
ALC Mosaic is a North Carolina private school on Monroe Road in East Charlotte. About 80 kids learn here, from kindergarten through 12th grade.
We see parents as their kids’ primary educators. Many of our families already call themselves homeschoolers or unschoolers; others don’t use those words but believe the same thing. What we offer is everything that’s hard to put together on your own: skilled facilitators who know each kid, a full week of offerings to choose from, field trips and days out in parks and woods, a campus made for kids, a coworking space for parents, and a community of families doing this together.
“To understand life is to understand ourselves, and that is both the beginning and the end of education.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti
How the school runs
We’re an Agile Learning Center. That means a small set of tools that help kids plan their own time and help everyone see what’s going on: setting an intention in the morning, choosing offerings, reflecting at the end of the day, and changing how the community works when something isn’t working.
Kids belong to one of four groups.
- Roots
- The youngest. Based in the play yard, with indoor classroom space: open play, field trips, forest days.
- Saplings
- When kids start to think ahead and try offerings in the schoolhouse. Also based in the play yard, with field trips and park days.
- Canopy
- The middle years, based in the schoolhouse. Kids make their own schedules, commit to offerings, develop projects, and grow closer to their peers.
- Acorns
- The teens, also in the schoolhouse. Personal interest projects, writing workshops, civics, and test prep for those who want it.
The adults here are facilitators. They plan offerings from what kids ask for, keep spaces like the art room running, help kids work through conflicts, and write down what they see in each kid’s portfolio, so families can follow along as it happens.
Parents are part of the community, not visitors to it. Families lead offerings, share skills, drive on trips, help care for the campus, and carry interests forward at home. Adults on a child’s enrollment agreement can also use the coworking space on campus.
What we believe about learning
Agile Learning Centers share a few core beliefs; everything else can vary from one community to the next. Underneath all of it is trust: in kids, in each other, in you.
- Learning is natural. It’s happening all the time, whether or not anyone planned it.
- People learn best by making their own decisions. Kids are people.
- What surrounds you teaches more than what you’re told. The culture a kid lives in every day shapes them more than any lesson.
- Growth happens in cycles. Set an intention, try something, reflect on it, share it, and go around again.
How we got here
In 2013, Nancy Tilton and a group of families started The Mosaic School as a democratic free school. That November, Nancy found the Agile Learning Center in Manhattan. Through 2014 the school took on the ALC tools and became the second school to run as an Agile Learning Center.
In the summer of 2014 we hosted the first Agile Learning Facilitator training, together with the ALC founders. The network of Agile Learning Centers has since grown around the world.
Where we are
6100 Monroe Road, Charlotte, NC 28212. The office is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm.