Personal Effort in a Chosen Discipline
We make sure that each teenager puts in the effort to attain a level of excellence in some part of life. Everyone has different talents, and it should be the role of the high school to help students identify these areas of interest and then provide the support to develop these talents. In this way, each teen can establish a meaningful basis for self-confidence and respect, tools that are essential in contending with the strong currents of peer pressure they face. The possibilities are as varied as the students and have included everything from singing, to cooking, to mathematics, to caring for animals.
Standardized Testing
Living Wisdom High School is based on a balanced development of the four Tools of Maturity: the body, feelings, will, and intellect. In contrast, mainstream education, with its one-pointed focus on obtaining higher test scores, has increasingly emphasized the training of intellect at the expense of activities that promote growth in the other areas. It is interesting then to compare the results of these two very different approaches.
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) Score Averages 2004-2021 (Living Wisdom High School)
Our School Averages | National Averages | Above National Average | |
Language Arts | 640 | 533 | +20% |
Mathematics | 608 | 527 | +15% |
Total | 1248 | 1060 | +18% |
We also assess student progress using the IOWA Test of Educational Development. Over the past two years, our students have shown an average gain of 14 percentile points in comparison to other students their age.
A Personalized Schedule, Suitable for All Time Zones
Every student, in partnership with a mentor and faculty, designs a personalized, balanced program with experiences in self-discovery, academic excellence, creativity, connections with others, and service-learning adventure. The result is a personalized learning plan based on each student’s interests, long-term goals, educational aspirations, and abilities.
Service & Adventure

Along with the teenager’s growing awareness of larger realities comes the realization that our planet is filled with problems such as wars, lack of food and water, and homelessness. Left unaddressed, this realization can easily lead to cynicism and a rejection of the adult society that allows these conditions to exist. A key element of our high school curriculum is to provide opportunities for students to get involved in solving these problems. On a local level our students have helped at places like animal shelters, homes for the elderly, and preschools that serve special needs children. Farther afield, our students have helped at orphanages in Mexico, protected endangered Sea Turtles, and attended an international conference on Climate Change and Consciousness. Read Shanti’s Story
When international travel is open for all of our students, we will offer a two-week service adventure the students can attend as a group.