High School Culture

Paideia prides itself on its diversity of ethnic groups, interests, and opinions. We welcome diversity, we support it, and we promote it. We live in a diverse society, multicultural and varied in opinion and lifestyle. We want a school population that reflects that larger society. Not everyone comes from the same neighborhood or cultural background, has the same ideas, or has the same goals. Paideia is a liberal environment in the classical sense that liberal means open-minded and respectful of other points of view. We believe in egalitarianism, and we work hard to practice it. The environment of the school discourages peer pressure, pecking orders, and the herd instinct.

Visitors to the school are often surprised to discover that students call their teachers by their first names. Calling a teacher “Brian” or “Linda” does not mean that he or she is a best friend or that a student has the same responsibilities or authority in the school that the teacher does. Being on a first name basis with teachers is symbolic of the school’s desire for well-developed, comfortable relationships between teachers and students. These relationships encourage learning, taking intellectual risks, and not being afraid to ask for help. Serious learning is hard work, but it need not be impersonal. Teaching and learning should be cooperative, not adversarial.

More important than how students and teachers address each other is how they treat each other. Teachers expect students to do well and try hard. We want students to become responsible for themselves, personally and educationally. There’s no better way to do that than to trust them with choices and freedom that almost all can handle if given the chance.

An example of the culture of trust is students’ choosing to leave their belongings in unlocked lockers and common spaces. Another example is that students do not need permission to eat lunch anywhere on campus. There are no hall passes to the restroom, nor systems of demerits and detention. People make mistakes, of course, but most are easily remedied in straightforward conversation.

The school does not differ from most other strong high schools in certain areas of curriculum as much as it does in how it feels to be here. The unusual degree of respect and trust is much like the trust and freedom typically enjoyed by students and faculty in colleges and universities.