My Ideal School

My Ideal School

    I. Mission and Philosophy
My ideal school would adhere to the progressive educational philosophy and focus on the child in order to create the subject matter. Progressivism is based on the notion that humans are social animals who excel at learning when it involves performing real-life activities and cooperating with others. Philosopher John Dewey, a spokesman for progressive education, felt that students learn best by evaluating problems in a scientific method approach: awareness of the problem, defining the problem, proposing a hypothesis to solve it, evaluating the consequences of the hypothesis using past experience, and testing the most probable solution. This scientific model will be used throughout our entire curriculum. Our main values would focus on the progressivism principles of emphasis on learning by doing, importance of problem solving and critical thinking, use of group work to develop social skills, creating learning goals of understanding and action as opposed to memorization learning, and that “learners should be active and learn to solve problems by reflecting on their experience.”[1]
Our mission statement would state that we exist to address the unique academic, physical, social, and emotional needs of students. Our teachers are committed to creating and maintaining an orderly, trusting, and caring environment where teaching and learning are exciting and students are guided as they learn to ascertain responsibility. All aspects of the school's organization and curricular activities are developed by “basing instruction on the interests of the child”[2] and are designed to accommodate individual learning styles so that all will experience success.   We want to improve the education of children and teachers by applying all available knowledge about learning and growth to the educational process and connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen individuals, their...