Guiding Principles
The program of studies of Vermont Commons School is a dynamic educational experience. Four guiding principles are central to our mission.
Guiding Principles
- Understanding the relationship between the natural and human environments should be the primary goal of education. Understanding ecology and the natural environment--and the ways in which humans interact with and affect them--is essential to developing a healthy relationship with the world. Using the environment as the fundamental context of education allows students to understand their role and place in both human and natural environments, promoting confidence, wonder, and meaning for the learning experience. Education becomes a dynamic enterprise into which experience and information are interwoven.
- Fluency in basic skills provides the foundation for learning. Students must develop fluent skills in the communication arts, mathematics, and physical and natural sciences in order to gain an understanding of how the world functions and how to interact with it in a constructive manner. With the skills of language, logic and analysis, students will be able to develop knowledge, adapt and thrive in an age in which information is generated at an ever-accelerating pace.
- Genuine Encounters with the world enable students to test skills and apply knowledge in meaningful activities. Students must interact directly with their environment to provide a meaningful, real-world context in which to apply their skills and knowledge. With the world as our laboratory, students have an infinite inventory of learning experiences available to them. Genuine Encounters take students out of the school community in order to conduct experiments and studies of wilderness areas and man-made institutions and to put knowledge and information learned in the classroom into practice. This real world context allows students to construct a holistic view of their world and to understand their place within it.
- A complete education provides students with civic courage and the tools to become productive citizens. We are all part of, responsible for, and impact on our world. Productive citizenship requires that students thoroughly understand how their local and global communities work and the reciprocal relationship that they have with them. Respect for diversity, understanding of interconnection and acceptance of responsibility presume the development of certain values including tolerance, respect for self and the desire to become a contributing member of society.