Hi, I am Leo Wilder, founder of Orchid Community School (OCS). Still in its first year of operation, this K-12 micro school in Springfield, IL currently serves six students in the central Illinois area ranging in age from 9 to 16 who were seeking a bully-free, flexible, accommodating, and less traditional school experience.

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With around a decade of experience in the field of special education both in public and private schools and a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Illinois Springfield, I have learned a lot about the problems that our administrators, teachers, parents, and students are all facing within the usual school model in the United States right now. While mostly everyone seems to be struggling, it seems the children with disabilities who need special education services are especially vulnerable at this time.​

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The name for the Orchid Community School originally came from a book I read by W. Thomas Boyce called The Orchid and The Dandelion. Boyce, an American pediatrician, published the book in 2019 and within it he explains a lot of science around how nature and nurture interact together and shape children into having distinct traits that can be represented by the metaphor of the orchid and dandelion. You may have purchased an orchid and noticed the little tag that tells you to water it with an ice cube once a week. Most people do this and then throw the orchid away when all the pretty blooms fall off. If you give an orchid really specific, delicate care, these sensitive and incredible plants will bloom again and again. You may also have noticed a dandelion growing up through a crack in the sidewalk. These hardy weeds can withstand a lot of unfavorable conditions and still manage to push forward towards the sun. Boyce uses this metaphor to explain how many children are more like dandelions - resilient, able to handle a lot of pressure and challenges and still bloom regardless. However, others are more like orchids - with innate, gorgeous, and almost other-worldly talent ready to bloom, but requiring much more specific and thoughtful care in order to do so. ​

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These "orchid kids" often have Autism, ADHD, a history of trauma, gender and sexuality differences, and/or other neurological conditions that make them easily targeted by bullies of all ages. They are tossed into classrooms where teachers are underpaid and overworked, not allowing even some of the best ones enough time and energy to devote to individualizing the child's learning to the level that they require. They then go home to exhausted parents who are most likely also neurodivergent and dealing with the anxiety and depression from a lifetime of not having their own needs met. The parents want to do right by their kids and want to support them, but they are (metaphorically) trying to tend to their orchids with ice cubes, not knowing any better.

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This is where Orchid Community School comes in. Our school looks like:

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• ​​Tues-Friday programming from 9am to 3pm with a traditional school calendar (August-May) with potential for summer camp programs available. Every week has a 3-day weekend and no required homework is assigned.

• Tuition is charged, comparable to other local private school tuition, but full and partial scholarships may be available, so you can discuss this with Mx. Wilder.

• Individualized academic programming with multi-modal instruction, depending on your child's learning styles and current academic skills. Traditional A-F grades are not used; rather, the state standards are utilized to ensure students are on track to master their grade level skills and most assessments are project-based.

• Personalized goals and lots of freedom to structure their day around what they are interested in learning about and skills they actually want to obtain

• Gentle, laid-back teacher who values personal autonomy and views discipline as a way to help children learn how to communicate their feelings and needs more effectively and appropriately (because every behavior is an expression of a need or emotion).

• Lots of field trips, special guests, and community involvement

• Monthly Family Fun Events with free admission to build relationships among families​

• Kids who actually want to come to school and feel free to be who they are without fear, judgment, or shame

• As we are new, we are in process of obtaining accreditation. Until that is received, all students will prepare for the GED exam as a homeschooled student in Illinois would do. Students can also take the ACT early and take college level courses online or locally if admitted, even while still attending OCS. One of our students is getting amazing grades taking three different college courses right now, while also having plenty of other time for socialization, play, and working on personal goals.

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What I love about this current chapter of my story as I develop this school and methodology is that I get to do it alongside my brilliant students. I love watching their faces light up when they get a spontaneous idea. Let's make a short film about pirates! Let's sell our art at the farmer's market! Let's swim in the lake! Let's go sledding! They have such brilliant ideas, and as I watch and gently help guide them along the path of their own curiosity, I am finding that is where the true learning (and even true magic) can really happen. Along the way, I am watching my students really enjoy learning and I am also re-discovering how much I can really enjoy teaching.

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If you are interested in learning more, sign up below for updates or reach out to me at:

leo@orchidcommunityschool.com

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Thank you!​

Leo

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