OUR PHILOSOPHY

We all learn best when fully engaged in what we are doing. An essential ingredient in this engagement is an active attention: an enlivened state that combines an alert mind, deep interest and a responsive body. Learning in this way affirms the whole child and brings a new quality to the student's work, a quality of being "one's own."

At the Blue Rock School teachers are involved in the search for ways of helping the children learn in this way. In order to call forth the children's full attention, the teachers also need to be fully attentive, to be available to the children, to listen to them, to hear them. They need to share a vision of the whole child that includes precious intangibles that cannot be weighed, measured, tested or graded. A kind of clear-sighted flexible planning is required that allows room for education in the moment. To find out more about our Assessment and Standards click here.

The school's atmosphere provides both warmth and firm limits, both the freedom to explore and the security of intentional direction.

It is a place where the thoughts, feelings and aspirations are developed through relationships with teachers and peers. Classes are small at Blue Rock and all the staff knows each child. Students sense that they are part of a community, and children of different ages often work and play together. The extensive and close communication among staff members is a unique ingredient of the school.

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Planting the seeds of knowledge.

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Photographs on this web site courtesy of Eilleen Brady Nelson and Tom Nelson.