GOALS AND PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

Students can change, but they need the guidance and the direction to be able to do so. Students need to understand the role and the impact that an education can have on their lives. They need to learn about the people and events that have had an impact on our world and why. Students need to learn that they can be empowered to make changes in themselves in class, in school, in their community and in the world. The model used allows the staff to provide guidance to the students and develop internal motivators that are needed to establish personal and academic success. The primary goal of the education model is to realign the student’s needs and wants so they are able to learn. It is important to understand that when a child enters school they may be suffering from stress, grief, loss, pain, hopelessness, depression or other medical issues and they are not able to learn at their peak capacity. They may not be able to learn anything new or even process basic information needed to be successful in education.


We change the traditional methodology of education to include therapeutic processes. The model embraces the physical, emotional, intellectual, ethical and social growth of children within a framework of the traditional values of trust, fairness, cooperation and non-violence. Our goal is not just for the child to learn the necessary data, but to enable the child to lead a more joyful, productive and caring life. Only when a child develops their own value and worth can they develop the intrinsic motivation needed to learn and grow. The goal is to create a healthy child that is capable of learning as they progress throughout life. To that end, the model promotes first and foremost mental health and adds to that the educational standards that the child is able and ready to begin learning.


The curriculum is taken at its traditional value as aligned with the Indiana State department of Education and combined with: self-esteem building, community building, and problem solving strategies, perception recognition, and communication, making a difference, conflict resolution, emotional health, personal organization and personal strengths. The lessons progress from classroom climate, to the acquisition and integration of knowledge. The students continue to build on their knowledge to extend it, refine it and use it meaningfully. The lessons appear in non-traditional methods and are designed to implement learning. Lessons are designed on a thematic approach integrating subject materials. Units of instruction are less dependent upon textbook methodology and more dependant on an integration of skills, with hands on approach to learning. Worksheet use is limited to the demonstration of transferable knowledge to meet requirement for demonstration of a skill that cannot otherwise be assessed.


We recognize that the least useful demonstration of learning is that material which requires the regurgitation of knowledge using a pencil and paper. With the exception of the demonstration of writing skills, other assessment forms are used whenever possible, drawing on the multiple intelligence and multi-modal models of learning.