FAST-WICHITA: 2026

What is a microschool?

A small mixed-age student population,
An innovative, customized curriculum,
Place-based and experiential learning,
The use of cutting-edge technology,
Focus on the community, belonging, problem-solving, and
An emphasis on mastering or understanding curricula and material.

WISE Expo2026 - Learning Lab

FAST-Wichita — https://fast-wichita.blogspot.com — is an attempt to gather

a conversationally convenient number

of experienced, local, representative persons

to consider and discuss

historical economic and ecological TRENDS that have led to
the present range of opportunities for and responsibilities of FAMILIES
to form and operate pre, primary and secondary SCHOOLS
in public, charter, parochial, private, micro, cooperative & home settings

for the purpose of incrementally

articulating what matters, what works and what fails in what settings,
identifying common/unique strengths/weaknesses of the alternatives and
improving educational policy and practice in Wichita and the world by
working together … and taking one step at a time.

FAST-Wichita is glad for this opportunity to join and encourage WISE, sturdy, pioneering teachers, parents and students daring … even welcoming … personal engagement with a microschool educational opportunity that may seem uncommon at this moment in history … even though it is startlingly similar to the legendary “one-room schoolhouse” that was the undisputed standard for education during the USA’s first century. You are going “back to the future” where you will find the now neglected familiar becomes a portal to the eternal.

Your path has maps charted by others, study them.

Say That Again — FAST survey of family and school trends since Richard II

The Aims of Education — Alfred North Whitehead, 1916 address

How to Start Your Own School — Robert D. Love, 1973 book e-download from

https://www.northfieldschool.com/cohorts/htsyos

Why Schools Fail to Educate — John Gatto, 1990 NY Teacher of the Year

Independent Institute 2021 summary of Really Good Schools — James Tooley

Your surroundings are vital to survival, respect them.

Education without Economy is powerless -

I, Smartphone — Larry Reed, Liberty International, 2025

Education or Economy without Ecology are meaningless -

Small is Beautiful, Chapter 6: The Greatest Resource -Education
— EF. Schumacher, 1973