Framework of Values
Our work at Paideia is guided by a set of principles — our Framework of Values — that accompany each member of our community through our shared daily work of teaching and learning. These values are by their very nature aspirational, encouraging our community forward as we move through the tasks that fill the daily life of the school.
From the time they were first drafted in 1979, the Framework of Values has reminded us that our roles as teachers encompass far more than teaching academic subjects alone. We teach character, an understanding of our place in the larger world, how we should treat one another, and how we ought to think about our own learning and its purposes. These principles help us prepare our students to not only live in the world, but to change it.
Excellence and Hard Work
Paideia should be a school that values excellence. We ought to encourage our children to do their best in all or most of what they try. As well as excellence in basic academic areas, we should emphasize quality work in the arts, in athletics and in leadership. Not all children are capable of excellence in all or even most of these areas. We should also stress the value of effort and the satisfaction and rewards that come with hard work. Paideia should also emphasize creative expression and problem solving that go beyond established bodies of knowledge. An emphasis on innovation is necessary if students are going to learn to adapt to a changing world and ultimately take part in shaping change.
Attitudes Towards Learning
Paideia should teach that learning is a lifelong process, not only an activity associated with institutions, and that individuals are responsible for their own learning. Most schools promote the passive acquisition of knowledge. We should teach our students to use reason and logic and to apply these tools to engage with the world. Schools often err on the side of stressing the competitive and private nature of learning. We should impart the value that learning can often be a cooperative effort in which shared ideas enhance each student's experience and understanding.
Development of an Ethical Self
Students should begin to define their own values as part of a developing sense of personal identity. They should be able to be honest about their convictions and have the courage to defend them. It is particularly difficult for children to maintain their personal integrity in the face of social pressures. They must also grapple with the persistent ambiguity of many ethical issues. The school should provide opportunities for students to test and expand their ethical awareness.
Commitment to an Environmental View
The school should introduce children to the complex interrelatedness of people and the environment. We should encourage our students to take responsibility for their own immediate environment and for advocating preservation and protection of the natural world.
Egalitarianism
The school should use every opportunity to stress equality among races, among ethnic groups and between the sexes. Sexism and racism are still powerful forces in our society and unless the school addresses these issues actively and continually, children may absorb negative values from the surrounding culture. Much of teaching needs to be by example and through practice.
Respect for Diversity
Paideia should teach explicitly, by example, and through its environment an appreciation of racial, ethnic and cultural diversity.
Social Responsibility
Our students should understand the opportunities they have been given by their parents, their community and their school, and that there exists the expectation that they will respond by leading socially useful and purposeful lives. Social responsibility encompasses compassion for others, responsibility for working on solutions to the problems of our immediate community and of the larger national and international community. Awareness of these problems comes through study and through informed activity. Social responsibility in our society also involves an understanding of democratic values, the structure of our political community and the nature of leadership in a democratic society.
Empathy
Our students should be encouraged to develop a caring and respectful attitude toward children and adults in their community. We live in a culture that stresses individual self-fulfillment, sometimes at the expense of others. Perceiving the needs and caring about the welfare of others is fundamental to becoming a mature person.
An Appreciation of the Importance of the Present
Schools as preparatory institutions are almost always guilty of overemphasizing the future: everything that happens is rationalized for its future benefits. Education is not only preparation for life; it is life. That consciousness ought to be present at Paideia. The day a child spends now in school is as valuable as what will come later. Respecting the value of the present is one way of preparing for a healthy and productive future.