We’re sick and tired of seeing good-hearted 18-year-olds who immediately crumble as soon as they leave home. We feel entrepreneurship is the best way to teach them to love taking on challenges when they are young, so that when they are adults, they’ll be unstoppable.
Beginning in middle school, our students launch their own businesses. For example, Ruger is 12 and we noticed he loves watching survival videos on Youtube. We encouraged him to make survival kits, and he made $600 in one day selling door-to-door in his neighborhood. Now, we’re helping him put together a website and sell online. By the time he graduates, he could have a serious business. He doesn’t even notice he’s learning writing, math, Excel, marketing, budgeting, logistics, etc. He just loves being trusted to do something valuable in the world while his peers are stuck doing endless worksheets in public school.
Mornings at Trekker are devoted to traditional academics, and afternoons are dedicated to practical learning. However, even the traditional academics are done through the lens of their businesses. Instead of a made-up writing assignment, they can write a sales page so they actually care about what they are doing. Rather than a boring grammar worksheet, we may have the students wordsmith a real marketing email.
Students start very small. 9-year-olds can’t be expected to start complicated businesses. They bounce around to different ideas sometimes and that’s okay. Most of them will start with a simple product or service they could offer to earn their first $100, and then use that money to start the next idea. As they build confidence and grow more capable, we want to see them achieving huge goals. Jim has been an entrepreneur his entire career, so he can mentor them along the way.
Entrepreneurship at Trekker has nothing to do with money. It’s about making sure that no student at our school EVER asks “why would I ever need to know this?” Give your child a purpose, and watch them thrive.
Trekker is a non-denominational school that teaches traditional Christian values. The owners and adult mentors at the school are all religious, but come from different denominations.
Our students belong to many different religions, and we make no effort to convert them to a new religion. We encourage them to develop a strong spiritual foundation according to their family’s beliefs. School starts each day with a prayer, and students from any religion are welcome to pray according to their own faith tradition. Individual time is also given them to study scripture or to ponder for a few minutes so they can start the day off right, but there are no formal religion classes at the school.
Students will hear about many different religions as we discuss history and academic topics, and students and mentors are welcome to share truths from their own faith traditions. Students will hear truths taught from the Torah, Quran, Book of Mormon, New Testament, or any other religious text that their peers and mentors use. We want students to respect the goodness in ALL religions, but also to never feel any pressure to adopt a belief system other than their own.
If you want your child to be in an environment where traditional moral values are reinforced, and all religions can respect one another, then Trekker will be great for your child. If you’ll get bent out of shape if your child ever hears a peer or mentor quote scripture from a book they don’t believe in, then Trekker may not be the place for you.
All students undergo the same process for admittance to ensure they are a fit at our school–irrespective of gender or gender orientation. Students who are LGBTQ will be respected and, of course, welcomed.
We do not promote any particular denomination’s views, but we will teach two time-honored family values: (1) Gender is part of a person’s God-given eternal identity and purpose, and (2) marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God.
Of special concern to us is students teasing others about their gender. It may seem harmless to tease a boy for being effeminate, or a girl for being a “tomboy”, but it can easily cause confusion and distress. We won’t allow it.
We will also teach children how to respect and love others regardless of their sexual orientation or gender. We will focus on teaching kids kindness, respect, and love toward all people regardless of differences.
At government-controlled schools (public and charter) around the country, children are receiving counseling regarding gender without the parents’ knowledge, or over the parents’ objection. Schools are encouraging children to socially transition, injecting hormone blockers into their bodies, and bullying kids into gender dysphoria. Children as young as kindergarten are asked their pronouns, which promotes the ideology of gender fluidity. Even our local schools in St. George are not immune from some of these issues.
It won’t happen at our school. Not ever. ALL issues about your child are YOUR business as the parent and we have NO right to keep it from you.
I’ll just be frank. Precisely zero liberal nonsense will be promoted in our school. The owners of the school are very conservative, but please don’t expect us to indoctrinate kids according to a conservative mindset either. That’s not real education.
Our goal is to bring up issues of the day at an age-appropriate time and allow the kids to learn for themselves how they feel about it. So don’t be surprised when your kids come home talking about critical race theory, foreign affairs, and issues in history. We don’t put them in a bubble. We encourage them to understand diverging viewpoints, and then to spend time talking with their PARENTS to apply their moral values to those issues.
We believe PARENTS are the ones in charge–not the school.
No, this is a fully private school.
We considered becoming a charter school, but even if we are a private business, accepting government funding means we have to abide by the government’s education system. We frankly feel that the government education system is a failure, and so we operate as a for-profit, private business.
Each of our classrooms have students of a small range of ages (for example, 9-11 years old).
We LOVE multi-age classrooms! When students are all exactly the same age, there are two problems: (1) They label themselves when they see someone the same age who is smarter, more athletic, or more popular, and (2) They have no one to show them what progress will look like and to inspire them to learn and grow.
While students do some amount of teaching one another, older students are NOT just there to teach the younger students. They are working on their own curriculum and progressing individually. Adult mentors help each student with their OWN curriculum rather than factory-style lectures (as in public school) that would require everyone to be at exactly the same level.
When our kids first joined a multi-age classroom, we had our doubts, but we quickly saw that students can progress MUCH faster when not waiting for everyone in the classroom to learn one thing before moving on. They each work individually so everyone can keep being challenged.
Some students who are struggling at a different school may find success at Trekker. Heck, I might act up too if I were stuck in a hard desk and had to listen to lectures all day at a public school! Sometimes, they just need a change in environment in order to thrive. A student who is bored in class or needs to get up and move a little may love Trekker.
However, Trekker is generally a bad fit for kids who haven’t yet learned to follow the rules without much supervision. Our kids will use pocket knives and power tools as they work on projects. They’ll be working with money in their businesses. They’ll frequently be given an hour to go anywhere in the school and work on learning a new concept with no adult looking over their shoulder.
It’s not a free-for-all. We have rules and adult mentors watching out for them. However, students are given MUCH more liberty than most schools. Consequently, if you know your child is struggling with showing respect for others, or following rules, then Trekker isn’t the right school for them right now. We have much higher standards of student conduct than public schools.
Of course!!! Our students are college-bound, and we hope to attract the type of student who has ambitious life goals. We provide all the transcripts and records that your child will need for college admissions. Even the most elite colleges and universities are happy to admit students who attend private schools.
We also know it’s important that our students are fully prepared for the SAT or ACT. We work hard to make sure every kid CRUSHES the test so that their college options are open to them.
Keep in mind, however, that we are not 100% focused on traditional academics alone. We want students to learn to provide for themselves through entrepreneurship, to learn important subjects the ACT ignores such as technology and personal finance, and we also spend time developing students’ spiritual foundation and social skills. We want to develop the whole person–not just their ability to pass a test.
Check out our tuition page for all that information.
Not a problem. Students have different needs at different times. There are differences in what material is taught at each age group, but we aim to ensure your student is on pace (or well ahead) of public school.
Our only rule is that students dress appropriately so that it doesn’t impact the experience of those around them. We aren’t one of those private schools that prance kids around in flannel skirts and polo shirts so we can feel “elite.” Trekker values allowing students to make their own choices, and that includes in the clothing they choose to wear.
HOWEVER, if you know full well that your son or daughter’s outfit is going to turn some heads–please rethink it–even if you personally think it’s acceptable. For our sake as the people who will have to have an awkward conversation with you, please just avoid the issue. A young lady should not come to school with half a shirt; a young man should not come to school looking like a slob.
Yes! We welcome students who are differently abled and would love to meet with you to see how we can help.
However, the Trekker staff has no training or certifications in special education. Also, Trekker is academically accelerated and our daily schedule involves lots of surprise activities and changes, so some students may not thrive in that fluid environment–though we will accommodate however possible.
We want ALL kids to thrive and would be happy to serve anyone. We hope to get credentialed in working with special needs kids over time, but we don’t yet have that training.
If your child would be better taken care of by someone trained to work with students who benefit from special education, you might explore Caritas Academy in St George. They are certified to work with special education students.
Of course! It’s tough to choose a school without really seeing what it’s like. Shoot us a text at 208.477.9332 and let’s set up a time to talk.
We are in the process of getting our building built, but we’d be happy to meet with you. When school starts, you’re welcome to visit us when school is in session so you can see what it’s like.