Invictus Nashville Finding the Space to Create a Unique Learning Environment
Exterior of Invictus Nashville (Photo by Firefly staff)
One of the first things one will see when visiting Invictus Nashville Charter School’s website is a recording of Morgan Freeman reading the poem “Invictus” by English poet William Earnest Henley.
The final quatrain reads:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
It encapsulates Invictus’s teaching methodology, which puts students more in control of their own learning.
In Need of Facilities
For the last seven months, that learning has been occurring in a cluster of buildings behind the Donelson First Baptist Church on Lebanon Pike, and sometimes in spaces that are shared with the church.
The public charter school is in its first year of operations since its 2023 approval and currently serves pre-K through second-grade students. The plan is to grow by one grade level each year, and that makes space a premium and acquiring new facilities a priority.
Dr. Brenda Jones (left) leading a tour of Invictus (Photo by Firefly staff)
School founder Dr. Brenda Jones says Invictus needs funding that is explicitly tied to upgrading and acquiring facilities.
“If you want unique models, you’ve got to help fund those models,” Jones said. “You’ve got to help push for those models to be able to do what you want us to do without cutting the model program size down.”
Invictus isn’t the first charter school to face challenges in acquiring facilities. Donelson’s other charter school, STRIVE Collegiate Academy, announced its closure earlier this year, in part due to facility issues. Charter schools do not receive the same local funding for facilities as traditional public schools do.
To find a location for Invictus, Jones worked closely with the Nashville Incubator during its early days to secure facilities and resources while navigating the challenges of growing and creating a fundamentally unique learning environment.
“As a Montessori school, our classroom sizes and needs are much larger than traditional classroom size, so we're already behind,” Jones said, “Even if somebody was like, ‘Oh, well, they get this baseline funding,’ we're already behind that because we need more just by design.”
Invictus students (Photo by Firefly staff)
Montessori Learning
Invictus works within a unique learning environment: The Montessori Method. Developed by Italian educator and physician Dr. Maria Montessori, the strategy emphasizes hands-on learning and prioritizes teaching children to work as a team and help each other. With the Montessori Method, problem-solving skills and collaboration are at a premium. At Invictus, there are two teachers per classroom to attend to students’ needs.
“By respecting each child’s individual learning style and pace, Montessori education provides a personalized learning experience that differs significantly from the one-size-fits-all model of classical education. It’s an education for life, preparing children to become thoughtful, compassionate, and proactive members of society,” An excerpt from the school’s website reads.
This approach is founded on the belief that children shape their own psychological growth through interaction with their surroundings. It suggests that children younger than six, when given the freedom to make their own choices within their environment, engage naturally in activities that support their fullest development.
At Invictus, children engage in a variety of activities, working independently or in small groups with specially designed learning materials crafted to stimulate curiosity and encourage deep understanding at their own pace.
Dream of Opening a School
Dr. Jones says she has always dreamed of opening her own school. She began her career in education after studying at Belmont University, Middle Tennessee State University, and Trevecca Nazarene University.
Before founding Invictus, she served as a math teacher, an instructional coach, a Dean of Curriculum, and an assistant principal. She also opened a tutor center during the COVID-19 pandemic to offer virtual learning help to local families.
Jones grew up in Nashville in public housing and experienced firsthand how access, or lack thereof, can alter a child’s path into adulthood. She says she designed Invictus to harness the best of what public education can be while serving the needs of the Donelson and Hermitage communities.
While creating Invictus’s model, she additionally met with parents, educators, and community members to ask three central questions:
• What must a school designed for Nashville include?
• What are our children’s hopes and dreams?
• How can a new school enhance our educational landscape?
All of it comes back to the final stanza Henley’s poem:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
“I love that poem,” Jones said. “It's definitely tried and true to my life story and the stories of the children that I am serving. Life is hard, but no matter what, you still get to make a choice, and you can make a choice and a decision to still be successful, to still thrive, despite the cards you might be dealt… And when my kids are big enough, they will definitely be learning that poem at my school.”
