The first sentence of the Mission Statement yields the following words: “personalized, supportive, and engaging school environment” not only to attain success as individuals but also as “members of their communities”. In the first sentence alone, it is clear that the Mission Statement has been incorporating what has been established in current brain research and Human Development. The first word of emphasis is ‘personalized’. Earlier in the paper, it has been established that Human Development is a complex interaction of nature and nurture rather than a simplified general law that will determine growth. Human beings are unique in their qualitative thinking due to their circumstances and culture. They will need personalized and subjective treatment in order to maximize learning. As learning does not solely depend on the individual’s nature alone, the individual’s environment must be designed in such a way that would nurture development. As such a “supportive and engaging environment” is necessary to foster the learning and the interaction of the individual. It will not do for the individual to grow and develop solely without interaction and without an environment that will nurture this and above all, without the “members of the community” which the individual must learn to interact with to find success. The mission statement clearly emphasizes the role of ‘others’ in moving towards the learning success of the individual. This invites the prospect of Cooperative Learning more than ever.
The Mission Statement, furthermore, mentions how it will include “active” learning, rather one sided learning. This will compliment the need towards interaction as it promotes active learning. It further establishes the recognition of children as having “specific academic needs” and subjective learning. As the paper had mentioned, the keyword is to be open to multiplicity which the mission statement invites through multiple language development and student diversity. This will no doubt enrich the environment that will nurture the individual. Its pledge to utilize current technology tools acknowledges the new step of Human development wherein there will be the presence of new entities in Human Development such as machines which are known to penetrate every aspect of the human lifestyle, growth and education, especially development.
The last sentence invites the prospect of collaboration which further supports the school’s commitment towards a dynamic interactive approach in learning rather one-sided. Not only does the school acknowledge each student to have his/her own individual talent determined by genetics, the school also recognizes that learning also takes place in an environment that will be open and broad minded to other fields. Clearly there is theory (nature) and practice (nurture) working together so that the child may be able to adjust in “real world application of learning”. The school recognizes that learning is complex and definitely beyond the classroom. Education takes place everywhere and anytime true to what is proposed by the Human Development theories.
Its Core Beliefs in the meantime solidifies the determination towards personalized and subjective learning by saying that “Every child deserves to feel known and valued”. There is the sensitivity needed and recommended by current brain research and Human Development theories for individual attention and care. Furthermore it attests to define learning and education through experiences. Experiences mean subjecting the student to the environment and allowing it to cause an impact on him/her giving way to nurtured development. The paper emphasized also that Children education and specifically primary and elementary classroom education should no longer be reliant of one sole teaching and learning method because this limits the potential of students. In order for the school to meet this, it needs to “provide opportunities” and “empower the child with many options” which the school includes in its core beliefs. This again proceeds in the notion that each individual have their own unique personalized and subjective talents that will need more options than one in order to be addressed. The Core Beliefs also cited an important detail which is the education “should be experienced beyond the school walls” which coincides with the Human development theory of education as ever-present in the environment. The paper mentioned the crucial involvement of the socio-cultural factor in the learning of the student which the school becomes aware of thanks to its commitment of learning beyond the school walls. Current brain research and Human Development Theories in this regard would attest to a learning that is outside the box which the tenth core belief, “That the community at large is a valuable and essential resource” coupled with the Mission statement’s pledge to adjust the children to real world applications of learning.
In conclusion, the Mission Statement and Core Beliefs of the DRAW Academy are consistent with the links of current brain research and Human Development Theories.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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