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Paideia Principles |
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Since 1992 Jones has operated as a Paideia School. The school’s philosophy adheres to the following Paideia Principles.
Like the Paideia Council, Jones Paideia teachers believe:
- that all children can learn;
- that, therefore, they all deserve the same quality of schooling, not just the same quantity;
- that the quality of schooling to which they are entitled is what the wisest parents would wish for their own children, the best education for the best being the best education for all;
- that schooling at its best is preparation for becoming generally educated in the course of a whole lifetime, and that schools should be judged on well they provide such preparation
- the three callings for which schooling should prepare all Americans are: to earn a living, be a good citizen, and to make a good life for oneself;
- that the primary cause of genuine learning is the activity of the learner’s own mind, sometimes with the help of a teacher functioning as a secondary and cooperative cause;
- that the three kinds of teaching that should occur in our schools are didactic, coaching for skills and Socratic questioning in seminar discussion;
- that the results of these three kinds of teaching should lead to the acquisition of knowledge, the formation of habits of skill and the growth of the mind’s understanding of basic ideas and issues;
- that each student’s achievement of these results should be evaluated in terms of that student’s capacities and not solely related to the achievement of others;
- that the principal of a school should never be a mere administrator, but also a leading teacher who should cooperate with the faculty in planning, reforming and reorganizing the school as an
- educational community;
- that the principal and faculty of a school should themselves be actively engaged in learning; and
- that the desire to continue their own learning should be the prime motivation of those who dedicate their lives to the profession of teaching.
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