Vision and Values

As educators, our vision to create a more hopeful future involves the cultivation of our
​core values:

• A developmentally appropriate education steeped in the visual arts, movement, music, speech, self-expression, and group work.

• A practical work and play-based curriculum, with a grounding of all academic learning in direct experience.​
• An ecological and place-based curriculum, focusing on the relationship of the human being to their surrounding environment, with attention to earthly and seasonal phenomenon, sustainable practices, stewardship and nurturing the experience of nature in the city.

• A curriculum brought through the art of oral story-telling, both metaphorical and historical, kindling the imagination of the child.

• A safe educational environment, where each child can continue to grow their own unique gifts, and transform personal challenges.   

• A school culture where the senses of the young child are nurtured and protected from the over-stimulating effects of electronic screen media.    
• An education that engages and develops the whole child through understanding, connection, and action: head, heart and hands.
• A supportive and seamless interplay between school life and the home life and cultures of our families.​​
• An affordable education whose tuition is based on need and ability to pay.
• An open economic structure where teacher and administrative costs are flexible and based on need and availability.
• A school community that represents the city in which we live, composed of different ethnicities, cultures, sexualities, and economic standing.

"One of the great things about being a teacher is being part of the children getting to know one another. Having the children be able to recognize one another—that we are in this together. They need to know that they are part of a community in order to feel their sense of self about who they are, so that they can go forth feeling strong and confident when they are older."
—Abbie Coburn, Co-Founder