About

Every kid can be a builder.

Every kid can be a builder. We teach them to see a real problem people have — and build something that actually helps — so they walk away with a problem-solving operating system, and the empathy to aim it at the right things.

Start a cohort →See the method
Run by

Coach Lamont Kirton & Coach Kareem

Spark Builders

YourselfYour HomeYour SchoolYour Community
Why now

The ground is shifting.

Three forces are reshaping how kids learn — and they all point to the same fix.

Attention is fracturing.

Phones and feeds train kids to react to whatever grabs them — not to choose what they pay attention to.

AI can do the assignment.

When a machine answers any question, school quietly becomes “optimize for the grade” instead of “learn to think.”

↺ The turn

So kids risk becoming consumers, not creators.

SPARK does the opposite. We train the one thing a model can’t do for them: notice a real problem in their own world, and decide what to build.

Who runs it

Two coaches, one room.

A steady anchor and a builder’s method — so every kid is met where they are and walks out with something real.

Coach Lamont Kirton

Coach Lamont Kirton

The anchor in the room

Runs BeyondChess across the NYC school system. He holds the steady rhythm every session runs on, and meets each kid exactly where they are.

Coach Kareem

Coach Kareem

The method & the build

Kareem spent years building with these tools, asking one question — what keeps the human in charge? That question became a way of thinking he calls CHIMERA, and under all of it sits one line: the only thing that’s ever truly yours is which way you point your attention. He didn’t set out to start a program. He saw the problem, and SPARK is that thinking handed to kids — the seven-move method that turns a noticed problem into a real tool that helps someone.

Coach Lamont — the credentials

Three decades of teaching kids to think.

Coach Lamont Kirton brings a long track record from two worlds — adaptive basketball and competitive chess — into every SPARK room.

Adaptive basketball

Working Wonders Starting Home

Lamont is the founder and CEO of Working Wonders Starting Home Inc., a Brooklyn 501(c)(3) he started in 2009, and the architect of its adaptive basketball program for students with disabilities. This year he taught adaptive basketball in an NYC school — the first of nine schools the program is on track to reach by the end of 2026 through direct partnerships with Adapted Physical Education teachers. Separately, WWSH delivered a $50,000 NYC DYCD youth sports program serving 60–75 young athletes this spring. It's all built on his 5-year connection to adaptive sports through Wheeling Forward Inc., plus 12+ years as a volunteer basketball coach at Kings Bay, where his teams won two championships.

  • Founder & CEO of Working Wonders Starting Home Inc. — a Brooklyn 501(c)(3) since 2009
  • Adaptive basketball in an NYC school this year — first of nine schools on track by end of 2026
  • Delivered a $50,000 NYC DYCD youth sports program serving 60–75 young athletes
  • 12+ years coaching at Kings Bay — two championships; 5 years in adaptive sports via Wheeling Forward Inc.

Chess + computer science

Beyond Chess

Lamont is an expert-rated chess player — 2216 on Chess.com, top 1–2% nationally, with over 30 years at the board — and the creator of Beyond Chess, a 50-week curriculum for elementary-aged kids that builds critical thinking, problem-solving, and character. This year he and Coach Kareem taught it together in an NYC school, combining chess with computer science — kids learning to think ahead on the board and to build with code. That pairing is the DNA of SPARK.

  • Expert-rated — 2216 on Chess.com, top 1–2% nationally, 30+ years at the board
  • Creator of Beyond Chess — a 50-week curriculum building critical thinking, problem-solving, and character
  • Taught it with Coach Kareem in an NYC school this year — chess paired with computer science
  • Think ahead on the board, build with code — that pairing is the DNA of SPARK
About the program

Who backs this.

SPARK isn’t a pitch deck. It’s a program run by working coaches, inside real NYC schools, with kids who make real tools.

🏠Spark Builders♟️BeyondChess · NYC schools
  • Its own home

    SPARK is its own program, becoming Spark Builders Foundation, a nonprofit. It’s run by two working coaches who bring their own track records to the room, including Coach Lamont’s decades in NYC schools.

  • Already in schools

    Coach Lamont runs BeyondChess live across the NYC school system. SPARK builds on that footing — the rooms, the relationships, and the trust are already there.

  • Real, not theoretical

    These are real kids and real, live tools — five builders so far, across self, home, and community. Like Star Math, a measuring app a 7-year-old made to track her own growth. Small, but real — and growing every week.

We keep this honest on purpose. Spark Builders is a focused, hands-on program — not a national franchise, and we don’t pretend to be one. We’d rather show you one kid’s real tool than a stack of promises.

What we've done so far

Small, real, already happening.

5 builders

real kids, real live tools — and counting

Star Math

a live app a kid made to measure her own growth

Real tools

every kid makes something people actually use

It grew from a simple conviction: the most durable thing we can give a kid isn’t an answer, it’s a way of finding their own. Coach Lamont has spent decades teaching that through chess; SPARK teaches it through building. Same belief, a new tool for a new moment.

From the room

Real kids, real builds.

Photos from our cohorts are on the way — here's where they’ll live.

A cohort mid-build — picking the smallest thing that works.
Coach Lamont holding the rhythm a session runs on.
The moment a kid’s tool goes live and a classmate actually uses it.
The method, in short

Seven moves a kid keeps for life.

Not steps to memorize — a way of thinking that holds up on homework, a friendship, a free throw, anything.

1Identify2Research3Connect4Brainstorm5Build6Give it7Improve↺
See every move →
Join the mission

This is bigger than us. Come help.

We're one small team with one method, and the problem is everywhere. If you've felt it and you want to do something — learn the method (it's free and open), run it with a few kids, and tell us what happened. Take it, teach it, improve it, or build your own version. It's not ours — it's everybody's. We just want more people walking a path through this.

Learn the method →Reach out →
Bring SPARK to your school

Let's start a cohort.

Eight weeks. One session a week. Every kid makes a real, working tool — and your staff lifts nothing.

Start a cohort →See what kids built
Run by

Coach Lamont Kirton & Coach Kareem

Spark Builders