Philosophy

In the academic arena, our goal is to offer a broad, interesting, challenging, and developmentally appropriate educational experience for all of our students. We seek to inspire active learners who think critically and take intellectual risks. Our program emphasizes the acquisition of skills and attitudes that will allow our students to express ideas effectively and to solve problems both independently and in groups. Additionally, we are interested in creating a Jewish community in which learning is fun and where students begin to see learning as an inherently rewarding lifelong process.

We are also deeply committed to supporting the development of children as caring, good, Jewish human beings as well as scholars. We believe children work harder, achieve more and treat each other with a higher level of dignity when they and their efforts are visibly and consistently encouraged and valued. To that end, we provide a nurturing environment, meaningful lessons and challenging standards that are designed to promote the best in our children.

We who work in the Elementary School believe there is a special and unique privilege and responsibility for creating and interacting in learning environments with children in their pre-adolescent, formative years. We believe the kinds of interactions generated and sustained between a child’s mind and his or her environment dramatically impact the structural and functional development of that mind, and early educational environments beginning at birth and continuing through elementary school play critical roles in shaping and strengthening a child’s ability to think, reason and create.

Our school’s educational philosophy is premised on the notion that the single feature of engaging learning for the human mind is the quality of a student’s interaction with the material being learned. This philosophy encourages individual, self-paced exploration of ideas, collaborative efforts among students, and lecture-style presentations. Because we believe that variety in delivery of information is important, we support and utilize a wide spectrum of classroom presentations and formats.