Richland Academy views the child as:
- The constructor of his own knowledge and an active participant in his individual learning experience (in collaboration with the teacher).
- Capable of making choices within a carefully designed environment.
- Possessing sensitive periods and following universal, predictable sequences of growth and change during the first 8 years of life.
- Worthy of an attitude of mutual respect, equal in humanity, if not in development, experience, or education.
Richland Academy views the classroom environment as:
- A carefully "prepared environment" which strives to be harmonious, supportive, child-centered, consistent, and non-competitive.
- An aesthetically pleasing, safe, and clean space where child-initiated, child-directed, teacher supported activity thrives.
- Balancing the developmental needs of each individual child with those of the classroom community as a whole.
- Engaging each child in age-appropriate experiences that enhance intellectual, communicative, perceptual, physical, social, and emotional growth and development.
- Designed to promote authentic learning (understood as the process of making meaning out of experiences and interactions).
- Utilizing hands-on, concrete materials and experiences as the building blocks for the later development of abstract thought.
- Balancing the development of critical thinking strategies and positive dispositions toward learning with the acquisition of specific skills and information.
Richland Academy views the teacher as:
- The vital link between the child and the prepared environment.
- The designer of a prepared environment that is responsive to, and shaped by, the emotional, physical, social, and intellectual needs of each child within the class.
- Committed to assisting children in realizing their unique, immense, inner potential.
- Capable of true respect for the child as the constructor of her own intelligence and character.
- An observer, guide, role model, protector, and resource in the classroom learning community.
- Dedicated to providing authentic, meaning-making experiences for children that draw upon their personal interests and are relevant to their life.
- Capable of offering choices to children and willing to allow them to take the natural or logical consequences for both appropriate and inappropriate choices.
- Recognizing the parents as the child's first teachers. Fostering communication and collaboration with parents related to their child's growth and development.
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