Francis Bacon
Bacon Academy · Our Promise

Every Graduate Leaves With a Plan.

We do not choose where a student goes. We make sure they can choose, and that they leave with three plans of their own.

Three Bacon Academy students stand at a trailhead where one trail splits into three. On the left, a young woman in work gear heads toward a jobsite where a crew builds a frame. In the center, a young woman with a satchel of books heads toward a stone campus with a bell tower. On the right, a young man holding a trail-style map heads out into open country toward distant mountains.
What We Are Trying To Do

Too many young people leave school with a diploma and no direction. We would rather send a graduate into the world with structure: a sense of who they are, where they are going, and how to get there.

We do not pick that destination for anyone. The Academy teaches the skills, keeps every pathway open, and shepherds. The plans belong to the student.

That is the whole promise.

The Pathways

Three pathways, and only three

At graduation, a student walks toward one of three outcomes. These are the pathways we build toward.

PATHWAY 1

Work

Immediate placement. From the skilled trades and other blue-collar work to the military. A graduate who can start on Monday.

PATHWAY 2

College

Aimed past the bachelor's, with a master's or a doctorate in view rather than a four-year degree as the finish line.

PATHWAY 3

Venture

Entrepreneurial incubators and sprints. A graduate who builds something of their own.

The Plans

Plan T, Plan P, Plan F

Every student leaves with three plans, written in their own words.

PLAN T

Target

Where the student is headed. It can be any one of the three pathways, and the student chooses it.

PLAN P

Pivot

Where the student turns when the target changes. Often it is the next chapter, not a failure.

PLAN F

Fallback

The plan underneath the other two. We hope very few students ever need it.

Three students, as examples

One student aims at the military and a twenty-year career. Within those years, the next twenty come into view. That might be the pivot, or it might be something completely new.

Another chooses college, and halfway through decides it is not for them. The pivot is a trade. If that does not work out, the fallback is the military.

A third starts a business and finds quickly that it is not for them. The pivot is college. If that does not hold, the fallback is a trade.

The same three pathways, in a different order for each student. The order is theirs, and the plans will keep changing until they find their groove.

How We Get There

Twelve years, three stages, then Alumni

Formational · Grades 1–4
Observe: learning how to learn
Foundational · Grades 5–8
Practice: honing the learning skills

A taste of work, college, and venture, so the choice ahead is an informed one.

Directional · Grades 9–12
Choose: preparing for what comes next

Choosing, planning, and testing the plans against real people and real work.

Alumni · After graduation
Carry: the plans, for life

Work, college, or venture. A graduate is an alumnus for the rest of their life.

This is Sequential Learning: a K-12 path designed backward from three destinations, in which each stage prepares the next and returns to the same ideas at greater depth. We work backward from the pathway that takes longest to prepare for, so that every pathway is still open on the day a student chooses. Our first subject thread, water, works backward from the graduate water programs at the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University.

Our Commitments

What we promise a student

  1. Every pathway stays open. The prerequisites for all three remain reachable from Grade 8 onward.
  2. In Directional, students draft Plan T, Plan P, and Plan F in their own words and test each against real people and real work: shadowing, the internship wall, and entrepreneurial sprints.
  3. By graduation, each student presents all three plans in their own words.
  4. The plans belong to the student for life, as a living document to revise whenever they like.

We do not choose targets, set check-ins, or tell a student when to switch. If we have done our job well, they will have the skills to know when, where, and how to keep life moving forward.

A penthouse or a truck. Where a graduate ends up living is theirs to decide. If they know who they are, where they are going, and how to get there, an education has done what it can.

We do not measure ourselves by where graduates land. We look at what they can do on the day they graduate, and at what alumni choose to tell us.

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