The Magnolia School, Tallahassee | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I graduated from fifth grade in 1997. I attended K, 1st, 4th, and 5th grades. Academics are one thing, and Magnolia School prepared me in that department, but what is more: Magnolia gave me life skills that many say, “Can’t be taught.” Magnolia school instilled in me a curiosity that underpins my own life-long self-directed education, including a drive to learn that surpasses any motivation connected to the need to “make the grade.” Magnolia allowed me room to pursue questions and develop ideas that some might have considered “silly” or irrelevant. In many regards, such “room to explore” is connected to my serial entrepreneurialism. Magnolia nurtured my “whys,” which serve me today in looking at business and organizational root-causes. Socially, Magnolia’s teacher-style allowed me to engage with adults– not as scary dictator-like authority figures but — as friends, collaborators, and (in a way) peers who were accessible/safe sources of instruction, direction, knowledge, and advice. I respected their guidance not because I “had” to but because they continually earned student respect. My experience with teachers at Magnolia taught me a comfort with authority and people in positions of power. Lastly, Magnolia provided me with the opportunity to interact and become friends with students of “differing abilities” (e.g, students on the autism spectrum) and life-backgrounds. Students who operated “differently” were not ostracized by structure, staff, or students. They were accepted on their own terms without need to qualify them by diagnosis-category or label. The same was true, in my opinion, with regard to race, nationality, sexual orientation (and that of one’s parents), and so– as students- we learned to learn, play, and create together with people of different walks of life, a life lesson that, I would argue, is a key to thriving in the 21st century.

Both of my children went here. There are no tests, no grades, and no FCATs. There is an interactive, wholesome approach to education that includes lots of creativity, computer time, reading time, math and science time, playground time, as well as working together, for example: older kids helping younger kids with reading, or the production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliette”, with the kids playing the roles, making the sets, and sewing the costumes . . it was awesome! The teachers guided them, but, the love of learning was there always. Sadly, my son died when he was eleven, but my daughter went on through high school in the IB program, and into the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown U., graduating Magna cum Laude. She is now working in a job about which she is passionate. I give much credit to The Magnolia School for showing her a life-long love of learning. This quote hangs on the wall in the ‘office’: “It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.” J.Bronowski

I graduated from Magnolia is the mid 90’s, and now at close to 30 years old I still think quite often of my time at Magnolia and how incredibly and wonderfully it has impacted my life long after I left the school. Now as a new mother I think back to the hands on learning and individualized approach the school uses, and I take a lot of parenting cues from this. I only hope I can find a school for my daughter that comes close to being as magical an experience and yet also as academically, socially and creatively stimulating.