synthesis school

A training ground for generational leaders. Born at SpaceX.

Healthy games for smart kids.

The most important year of their life…

Coaches dedicated to your child's growth.

Designed to help your child grow into an effective leader..

Expert training. Surprisingly affordable.

Holiday camp: ‍ game development at synthesis, only $115. dec. 23-jan. 4., synthesis teams gives kids the tools they need to be successful in the real world..

Common questions about the Tutor

A school at spacex.

I was given the opportunity of the lifetime in 2014 — I started an experimental school with Elon Musk on the campus of SpaceX. Our biggest question was: what should students really be learning in school ?

We decided that there are three things that matter most:

making sense of the world
building constructive relationships
exercising good judgment

But even if schools share these goals, the curriculum they use does not.

So I designed a one-of-a-kind class called Synthesis to develop these essential skills. How? Through a game-based problem solving environment that allows kids to gain confidence, make friends, and get practice making better decisions.

Until recently, Synthesis was only available to a handful of SpaceX families. Today, we have a global community united by the exhilarating experience of working together on compelling problems.

We can't wait for you to join us.

Common Questions

The world’s first superhuman math tutor..

Advancing human progress through education.

Synthesis School Review: Elon Musk’s Playbook for Teaching Our Children A Better Way to Learn

Table of Contents

An honest Synthesis School Review from parents and their ten-year-old.

If Tesla is to cars as SpaceX is to space travel, is the Ad Astra & Synthesis School the future of education?

Educating our children in the digital age presents a sea of opportunities and ongoing enrichment programs.

It is also an experience still grounded in the traditional classroom and tethered by tax-dollar constraints.

We wanted to share our story in the event it could help curious parents evaluate if their child’s learning experiences and education systems are truly teaching relevant skills.

A Good Problem to Have

We’ve been fortunate to have kids who thrive in the traditional system. Blessed, in fact.

But will the conventional system prepare them for the world that awaits them ten years from now?

My guess is no.

And I can tell you the exact moment it became clear:

Synthesis School Kid Playing Astra Nova Synthesis School Review: Elon Musk's Playbook for Teaching Our Children A Better Way to Learn

The parent-teacher conference.

Driving there, we were curious about the deep insights we will hear about our child’s specific behaviors, interests, strengths, and weaknesses. We couldn’t wait.

Driving home, we felt the feedback we received could have been copied and pasted for 80% of the kids in the class.

Beyond that, we couldn’t shake the nagging sense the subjects felt like an outdated checklist of nice-to-haves.

Could memorizing state capitals be more important than learning to code ?

Our thesis: With Siri a whisper away and supercomputers in our pockets, memorizing facts should take an immediate backseat to developing fundamental problem-solving skills.

Follow Every Direction

But how could they learn to solve real problems when always given both direction and rules?

Flashback to my niece’s first day of soccer. Shin guards on, a little nervous to try something new, and a last-minute pep talk from the car reminded her, “be certain you follow every direction from your coach.”

The coach asked the young group to run down the line and back to warm-up. Unsurprisingly, she was last to finish as she tried to run literally “down the line” like a balance beam.

She was doing exactly what she had been told: follow every direction.

I was beginning to feel like school days encouraged a lot of carefully following one another to tiptoe down the line.

But She’s Doing Great In School

Synthesis School Review - Traditional Classroom Shortcomings

My daughter might receive high praise for listening well to others, being organized, and owning the completion of her tasks.

And while she is very self-sufficient when it comes to her homework, one night Math triggered tears. She was distraught and declared there was no way a specific problem was fair as her teacher would never assign something that hadn’t yet been taught.

Upon reading the problem and others she had completed, you could recognize that the theme was similar, just flipped on its side. She had no interest in trying to problem solve, she was simply hurt to be asked to do something she didn’t understand.

This was a flag for us.

She had been hailed as an “excellent mathematician” the week before. This experience highlighted that she was excellent at coloring in the lines but inexperienced in flexing the necessary muscles to solve a new problem without a handbook patiently.

What school would we design?

You might not be surprised to learn this, but we’re both engineers.

When faced with a problem, our instinct if take it apart and design something better.

So we turned over our daughter’s report cards and began with a fresh sheet of paper.

What are the essential capabilities for her to develop? And how would she practice those skills?

Get comfortable being uncomfortable / embrace the chaos
Have the curiosity to look at complex problems and define your own speed limit
Practice and refine collaborative problem-solving skills
Ask questions and listen for thoughtful answers
Build relationships with those who can help

And if we’re being honest, we’re not contrarian enough to homeschool our kids to make this a reality. Instead, we looked for ways to supplement.

Enter: Synthesis Schoo l

This quick video from a parent certainly piqued our interest:

What is the Synthesis School

Synthesis School (you’ll find them at synthesis.com ) is an online school that started as a full-time program for the children of parents who worked at SpaceX. It was born of – surprise, surprise – a disappointing parent-teacher conference for Elon Musk.

When Elon left a meeting with his child’s teacher, he was inspired to re-think the concept of a school from first principles. Why did we continue to teach kids the same as we did 100 years ago? Especially given success in the world looks much different today?

He asked Josh Dahn to create that school with two principles in mind:

Cohort children based on their ability, not their age.
Don’t teach the tool. Teach the problem.

He rationed that learning how to use tools for the sake of learning them can be boring until you see how tools can help to solve problems. He felt that the current grade-level model was not the right fit and that students have different skills and interests that vary over time.

He noticed that his children didn’t need any nudging to play video games, so why not gamify education?

With these guiding principles, Josh Dahn went on to create Elon Musk’s Ad Astra school (in Latin, “to the stars”) a lab school for Musk’s children and SpaceX employees.

In Dahn’s own words, “The goal was to develop students who are enthralled by complexity and solving for the unknown. Synthesis is the most innovative learning experience from that school. It is designed to cultivate student voice, strategic thinking, and collaborative problem-solving.”

Enter Chrisman Frank, engineer #1 at ClassDojo, a K-12 network that reaches ~30 million teachers and students. He visited Ad Astra for the day and was astonished by the energy and excitement flowing from the classroom during the “Synthesis” course. Instead of lectures, students were whole-heartedly engaged in Astra Nova game simulations.

Frank felt compelled to bring this opportunity to students around the world and is now the co-founder and CEO of the edtech startup Synthesis School.

How does it work?

Sometimes it’s easier to show than tell.

There are another half dozen games and simulations that kids play weekly with a consistent group of peers. They can also opt into an increasingly diverse set of programs with other kids worldwide.

For our family, the weekly consistency combined with opt-in flexibility works for our 10-year-old.

You can always learn more about their approach on their website too. It’s worth checking since the offering is rapidly changing as they learn more about what works.

Bracing Yourself to Embrace the Chaos

I know we struggled with this.

As parents, we can’t aspire for our kids to get comfortable with failing and constantly prevent mistakes. We can’t ask them to make sense of ambiguity and then ask for every detail to be settled in advance.

So like us, you’ll probably have questions like:

Who are the Teachers?

Synthesis School is quick to point out a razor-sharp focus on their teachers. Only 4-6% of those who apply to teach are accepted.

Our daughter would be quick to point out that she thinks of the “teacher” as more of a facilitator for her cohort. More questions than instructions.

What’s Application Process?

We had first heard about Synthesis on Pomp’s podcast .

Intrigued, we began to dig a little more and actively followed the school’s chief learning evangelist, ana Lorena Fabrega (aka Ms. Fab):

I’m confused. How did we conclude that the best way to prepare kids for the future is to cluster them into a setting where they are organized by age, into grades, and forced to learn the same things, at the same time and pace, 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 12 + years? Huh? — Ana Lorena Fabrega (@anafabrega11) February 2, 2020

We mentioned the idea to both daughters and shared the video of students playing the Constellations. Their reaction was one of slight intrigue, but it sounded like “more school.”

As parents, we were intrigued.

“Apply to Synthesis” remained on the whiteboard for several weeks.

As we were making dinner, we put on the office hours webinar. Our youngest was in the kitchen with us, and after listening for a bit, she raised her hand and hopped off her seat at dinner to complete her application.

In the spirit of student-led learning, we didn’t peer over her shoulder or suggest re-recording her interview. It was one honest, enthusiastic take.

And I wish we had recorded her reaction when we told her she was admitted the following day. It was an authentic “I made it!”

We’ve heard from a few friends that there is a waitlist now, so might be worth getting your name in sooner than later.

What if my kid hates it?

First, I’ll admit things started a bit slowly for our daughter. The game was new. The people were unknown. The rules weren’t unclear; they didn’t exist.

So if we asked her how she liked it, it was closer to a “meh” than a “hell yeah.”

But we were determined to see if she could get more comfortable with all that newness. After all, wasn’t that the point.

Ultimately she did. And especially for a couple of other games, she “holy moly loved it.”

But Synthesis School also makes it easy on us. If we wanted to bow out after a month because it wasn’t what we expected, their refund policy is to simply ask. That’s it.

Our Daughter’s Experience 3 Months In

To set expectations, we didn’t expect raving reviews every session. Our expectation, knowing our daughter, is that she’d straddle curiosity and discomfort.

But that she’d want to show up and actively participate week in and week out. And hopefully, build into some optional sessions.

We also tried to set her up for success: we have good internet speed (some kids don’t and it’s frustrating for everyone), a good laptop, and a quiet place to play. And we give her a gentle reminder to expect the tsunami of chaos and “ride the wave”.

Thus far, I’d say we’re meeting that expectation. She loved the introduction of the Constellation 3D game.

In fact, here’s her take:

What’s the best part of Synthesis School?

The best part is the challenges.

A challenge can be to reach a certain number of points or to reach a certain area of a map. You get to do challenges with your cohort, and there’s one for each game.

Everyone has so much fun with the challenges, and it brings us closer together as a team.

What’s one thing you’d change?

I would add cohort vs cohort challenges. If we could meet at a random time during the week to do games or a challenge with other cohorts, that would make it awesome!

What are the kids in your cohort like?

The kids in my cohort are very nice, they are very focused, and they are competitive. The kids from my cohort are not just from the U.S, they are from all over the globe!

It’s fun to be with my cohort during the week because you get used to them over the weeks.

My only problem is the fact that I am one of the oldest in my cohort. I am with all the younger kids.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give new students?

I would say just try your best. Even if you are not very good at a game yet, or you are confused about how the game works, give it some practice, and you will get better!

Are you Ready to Try Synthesis School?

By sharing our experience, we hope that you can decide if introducing a little chaos is just what your little learner needs. And if it’s not gamified online problem solving, perhaps you prefer to supplement with advanced math ?

We’ll circle back and provide updates periodically as our daughter grows and Synthesis School evolves with her.

If you have any feedback, let us know in the comments. And if you decide to make the leap, we’d love to hear about your experience.

Dave Kline is a business owner and writer focused on management training and leadership development. He draws inspiration from his more than 20 years of experience leading high-performing teams at Bridgewater, Moodys and PwC. And shares lessons from across functions: operations, talent management, recruiting, digital marketing and product management. He currently lives in coastal CT with his wife and two kids.

Meet Synthesis: The edtech startup scaling Elon Musk’s Ad Astra school

Ceo chrisman frank tells us how synthesis is creating a platform that teaches problem solving for children that "want to learn how to build the future.".

Published: April 13, 2021

Updated: February 09, 2024

Meet Synthesis: The edtech startup scaling Elon Musk’s Ad Astra school

Elon Musk is well known for many things.

PayPal. Tesla. SpaceX…and even a monkey using brain implants to play ping pong.

Less publicized: Ad Astra (Latin for “to the stars”), a private school started by the South African entrepreneur and educator Josh Dahn.

Musk laid out his goals for a new school program…

…in a 2015 interview :

An alternative to the age segregation model: Musk says that separating kids by age doesn’t make sense for education, because students have different interests and abilities that are independent of how old they are.
Problem solving focus: Instead of giving children “tools” in a vacuum, they should be taught how to problem solve.
Gamification: Musk notes that he doesn’t have to “encourage his kids to play games.” Gamifying education is a natural match for kids.

Only a few SpaceX families had access to the program, though

Over the past few years, Dahn has been working with Chrisman Frank — a veteran engineer from edtech startup ClassDojo — to bring Ad Astra to the masses.

Enter Synthesis , an online games-based academy (Frank is CEO while Musk is not involved in the startup).

Officially launched in November 2020, Synthesis is currently an online once-a-week enrichment program that teaches Ad Astra-inspired problem solving.

In a few short months, Synthesis has reached a 7-figure run rate (~1k subscribers paying $180 per month)…but the school has much larger plans. The Hustle recently spoke with Frank to find out more:

Could you tell us the philosophy behind Synthesis?

Synthesis started with making education more about problem solving. We put kids in game simulations and let them figure out how it works.

In adult life and work, you’re always having to make trade-offs and work with other people. This is something we try to simulate.

There is a good audio clip on my Twitter that shows this type of skill development [see below].

Currently, everything in education is geared towards the middle or the bottom. My co-founder Josh [Dahn] and Elon made an unapologetically accelerated program.

There are some kids that are already doing very well and we believe Synthesis can help accelerate them even more.

The overall mission is to increase the level of innovation in the world. Let’s say right now there are maybe 1 in 10,000 people innovating and contributing new knowledge to the world.

What if we can get that number to 1 in 100?

My 8yo daughter is using synthesis and loves it. She basically kicks me out of the room but I listen in and the kids sound like this frequently. It's pretty crazy how fast they learn when there's limited guidance, competition, and time constraints ;). https://t.co/qIyUIzIMUf — Hermann Peterscheck (@petershk) March 24, 2021

How is the program doing?

Synthesis launched in November [2020] and has already reached a ~$2m annual run rate. We could probably be growing faster but our application process is deliberate.

We want to find people that are aligned with our philosophy.

How many people currently work at Synthesis?

There is a core team of 10. But we also have 70 guides, which are the adults that facilitate our learning sessions.

What is the longer-term vision for Synthesis?

Human ingenuity — our ability to solve complex problems collaboratively — is the world’s most valuable skill, and the root of all progress.

And we do not know how to cultivate this skill at scale. In our view, nothing could be more important for humanity’s future. So our aim is to do exactly that: learn how to cultivate human ingenuity at scale.

As far as how our product evolves, the existing subscription is the first part of a “barbell” strategy.

1) At one end of the barbell is the weekly enrichment program:

This program is a supplement to regular school or home schooling.

Right now we have 1k students but expect this will grow an order of magnitude by year end. For 99% of Synthesis students, this will be what Synthesis is.

2) At the other end of the barbell is a “full stack” online school :

This program will target the world’s most advanced science and technology students.

You can think of the Synthesis games and simulations as a massive tournament to find the kids that have high potential for the STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) fields. We need to find the kids in Bangladesh or Nigeria who have the mind and desire to change the world, but need access to the right opportunities.

It’s still early but we envision a situation where we can offer the top 1% of Synthesis students a chance to join a culture and community that will be the best path to changing the world through innovation.

Ideally, we could make this entirely free for the students, and run it as an investment in our long-term brand.

Even without the program dedicated to top performers, Synthesis sounds like a great software business.

I think that is true, because there is a growing wave of dissatisfaction with the existing education system. Savvy parents already recognize that the ability to solve complex problems is THE most valuable skill, and also something kids are rarely asked to do in school.

Combine that with the fact that this is sort of the first generation of internet-native parents, and I think the opportunity is enormous.

Will you be able to reduce prices in the future?

Yes. Like virtually every new technology, Synthesis is effectively subsidized by those who can afford to pay a premium price. We will use the revenues from this phase to invest in the product in order to reduce costs and make it available to as many kids as possible.

This is especially important for us as the demand is global. Most of our students are currently in the US, but we also have significant presence in India, Russia, and Europe.

Socializing is such a large part of early schooling. How does Synthesis add that component for an internet-only school?

I think of education as a bundle. You have the learning aspect and, also, a daycare aspect.

We are currently 100% focused on learning, not daycare.

But unlike school, our learning experiences are inherently social, because the kids are solving problems together. There is a real shared experience, which helps kids form stronger bonds than just sitting next to each other in desks. So, we have to move past the idea that physical colocation is always more social than virtual experiences.

I also think that Synthesis will serve as a Schelling point for advanced students.

Many kids already think and communicate at adult levels. At Synthesis, they will be around like-minded peers. They will have their local friends based on geographic convenience, and their internet friends based on shared interests and goals.

For the hyper-advanced students, Synthesis can be an alternative to entering college at age 12 or 14, which is sort of a tough situation to be in socially, even if you can do the academic work.

What is a common criticism of Synthesis you’ve heard and how do you address it?

We don’t give grades so people do ask “how do you measure the students and prove they are learning?”

But the big problem with the current system is the distortion caused by too much focus on measurement!

We don’t want to play the standardized test game. For us, it’s more important to focus on “Are the kids really thinking here? Does the problem solving they are doing in Synthesis resemble real life?”

Remember, Synthesis is voluntary. We are looking for members who see what we are doing and are excited about it.

Some parents really like the structure they feel the industrial education system provides. We are probably just not a good match for them.