I spent 35 years building schools. One was ranked 36th in America. This is the story of all of them.
Michael Strong has spent 35 years building schools, training teachers, and developing the Socratic methods that became the foundation of The Socratic Experience. His biography covers the full journey, from an inner-city classroom in Alaska where students gained four years of critical thinking in one semester, to a charter school in New Mexico ranked 36th in the nation, to starting TSE with three students and a credit card in 2020.
- How Socratic seminars produced four years of critical thinking gains in one semester. In Alaska, Michael ran unmodified Socratic seminars with inner-city 9th graders. The Watson-Glaser results were the strongest ever recorded for that population. The program was defunded six months later.
- The charter school that went from portable buildings to 36th in America in two years. Free tuition, no selective admissions, a tiny town in New Mexico. Michael built a school so effective that middle schoolers were excelling in AP exams. He was forced out over a licensing technicality.
- Why he stopped fixing schools and built his own. After 30 years inside institutions that resisted the methods that worked, Michael started The Socratic Experience. Three students, fall 2020, funded on credit cards. Those original families are still enrolled six years later.
The Socratic Experience © 2026. All Rights Reserved.