Our culture in quotes

Transformative change in education demands vision, but it demands much more than just vision. It demands also exceptional execution: the discipline to direct unbounded creativity towards the most minute implementation challenges, the all-consuming focus on practical details, and the endurance to engage in constant, unremitting, outcomes-driven iteration. Transformative change in education requires entrepreneurial hunger directed towards the challenge of making the ideal a reality. There are no participation trophies in the work of educating the human potential. Not if the goal is real impact on the children we seek to serve.

Education is the problem of our time. Not because the system is broken, but because there is no system to fix. What’s required is a new ideal, one seeking to educate the human potential. Not reform, but revolution; not a return to standards, but the discovery of a new standard. Our goal is to forge this ideal, and to ensure it results in enduring, wide-scale change in the way human children are educated across the globe.

Just as we believe that a child’s capacity for work is his foundational source of joy and self-worth, so we believe the same of ourselves. Each of us is here because we’ve deliberately and purposefully chosen education as our life’s work, and because we love the doing. To sow, not just to reap. We’re missionaries, but not martyrs. Sure, the challenges we face are daunting, but we think that’s part of what makes it so rewarding. Ever with a “frolic welcome” we choose to take “the thunder and the sunshine.”

We believe the work to transform education is primarily intellectual work. It is the work of observing, researching, debating, reflecting; it is the work of poking holes in arguments, of revisiting formed judgments in the face of new data, and of staying true to our own independent understanding of the facts. So we cultivate in ourselves a hunger for knowledge, a respect for reason, and a commitment to intellectual honesty. We seek insights equally from history’s theoretical giants, today’s best thinkers and innovators, and from each other. We strive, in all things, to understand first principles and root causes.

The team at Higher Ground consists of a group of talented individuals, each with strong character, unique personality, and first-handed convictions — so much so that building consensus can sometimes feel like herding cats! But the thing that we all share, in addition to the Higher Ground mission, is a commitment to live our lives fully. Here you’ll find people who will inspire you, push you to new heights, and offer you a powerful spirit of camaraderie. You’ll feel, as we all do, that you walk amongst giants. Your colleagues will be the people you’ll want by your side, whether you’re going to a wedding or preparing for war.