Philosophy and Objectives

The future of humanity depends upon the development of human’s most important resource: children. Today’s children are tomorrow’s adults and -good or bad- they will be what they have learned to become.

Children start to learn as soon as they are born and the experiences of the first three or four years are fundamentally important to their future development; however by the time adulthood is reached most people feel that the greatest part of their education comes from their school.

In general terms there are six major factors that determine a child’s growth and development:

  1.  Biological Inheritance
  2.  The Home
  3.  The Church
  4.  The School
  5.  Peer Society
  6. Television

Nothing can be done about the first and very little may be changed about the second and third. It is with the school’s part in the child’s growth that we are concerned. Hopefully the school can influence the quality of the peer society and can help the student to discriminate more in the use of the media.

We believe that each child is a unique and worthy individual and that the teaching-learning process takes place most effectively in an atmosphere of mutual understanding, respect and effort. Working cooperatively, teachers and students at all levels strive to acquire the tools necessary to solve the problems of living successfully in today’s complex world.

One of the most important understandings that must be gained concerning the world of today is that we live in a time of rapid change. Not only change is fast, the speed of change is accelerating. As changes are often perceived as being a threat to security it is important that our students are well prepared to live in an uncertain future.

We can only predict one thing for certain about the future: there will be problems to solve. There will be issues of various kinds, such as; personal, family, community, national, and world, regarding every aspect of life on earth and possibly concerning life elsewhere as well.

To become proficient in problem-solving students must learn to think. Thinking involves the raising of questions, the consideration of alternatives, creativity, evaluation and the suspension of judgment. Also involved is the courage to make decisions combined with the moral strength to assume the responsibility for the ensuing consequences. It is a process not easily learned. The common tendency to follow prejudice, superstition or popular opinion is such that students, while they are still young, must have the opportunity to learn to question, to be critical, to recognize and define problems and be creative in their solution.

To encourage this type of learning we must recognize that a good question has greater value than a “correct” answer and that a student’s original idea has more merit than a recitation of timeworn clichés or memorized “facts”.

When students learn to confront all types of problems in this rational manner they gain confidence and security. This will enable them to live lives that are personally successful no matter how much change they experience.