Mission Statement
The mission of The Open School is to enable students to become lifelong learners, informed and responsible citizens, competent and successful members of the workforce, and thinking, fulfilled, caring individuals with sensitivity to, and understanding of, the diverse multicultural society in which we live.
Educational Philosophy
Our philosophical beliefs are derived from Piaget, Bruner and Dewey in that we view children as naturally curious and motivated learners, capable of integrating and categorizing experiences in order to add to their understanding of the world around them. We believe that students are motivated by their interests, and, through developmentally appropriate practices, are guided in their ability to construct conceptual understandings from meaningful experiences. Through the use of our thematic and integrated curriculum, our teachers facilitate these experiences for their students, using current research and materials to guide their practice. As did John Dewey, we believe that learning happens best in context. Context enables students to recall, reuse, and connect what is learned to new experiences. A context driven curriculum builds student interest and enthusiasm, while also providing focal points for the infusion of standards. The teaching of basic skills then becomes a tool for student learning rather than an end in itself.
Our guiding principles are:
- Learning should be fun, interactive, and meaningful;
- Learning is a social process that happens best in a dynamic and effective community;
- We need to recognize and meet the needs of individual learners;
- Not all learning is classroom-based;
- Pursuing in-depth experiences leads to meaningful and lasting learning;
- A holistic approach to gaining knowledge that integrates subjective and objective experiences and learning in all subjects is more effective than teaching information in isolation;
- Students need opportunities to explore, verbalize, think, create, and discover answers to their questions;
- Students need the opportunity to both succeed and fail, take risks, and learn from their own mistakes;
- Allowing students to make meaningful choices within a curricular context creates ownership of learning; and
- Teachers are professionals who should be allowed and encouraged to write their own curriculum, to be learners themselves, to have success and failure, and also to take risks.
(Please note: Open Charter only participates in the following 5 tests: CELDT, CA Physical Fitness Test, CA Writing Assessment, CST and CAT-6.)