"To educate a man's mind and not his morals is to create a menace to society." Teddy Roosevelt's words point to the purpose of The Principled Academy. The philosophy of the school rests on the assumption that academic excellence is achieved in the context of moral excellence. Only on the foundation of Core Virtues can any genuine learning occur.

The school is one of several thousand schools across the nation which are adopting the Core Knowledge curriculum developed by Professor E. D. Hirsch. A specific content is taught in grades pre-K ~ 8 in language arts, history, music, geography, art, math, and science.

The Principled Academy average class scores on the SAT-9 standardized test are significantly above grade level.

The Character Education component of the school teaches students "to know the good, to desire the good, and to do the good." A motto in my middle school classroom reads, "The ultimate measure of success is how many acts of loving-kindness I have done." Respect, responsibilty, compassion, honesty, and a host of other virtues are the moral ideals that are the foundation of the culture of the school.

Students develop their learning ability and competence based on acquiring knowledge and effort, not simply innate ability. Each grade level provides core knowledge that enables the student to understand and master the content in preparation for the next grade level, for the curriculum is integrated and specific.

A non-denominational Religious School, The Principled Academy embraces those religious ideals of American culture which enable students to develop clarity about what is noble, good, and worth striving for in life. The school is dedicated to the development of the divine potential of each student.

At the same time, staff members are careful to respect and uphold the value of the various faith communities of each student's family. No religious doctrines are taught at school. The intelligent, virtuous person who is committed to building an ethical society is our ideal graduate.

- Mose Durst, Ph.D., Chairman of the board

Theoretical Framework for Children's Learning

The Principled Academy academic programs are based on a constructivist learning theory, first articulated by Jean Piaget. Piaget observed that children, through constant interactions with the environment, continually develop and refine their own concepts about the world. These interactions are reinforced by contact with peers and adults and through the use of materials that provide appropriate challenges to adapt as each new situation occurs. Knowledge is actively "constructed" through this interactive process as the child manipulates materials, questions, forms ideas, and tests and modifies ideas and concepts.

Piaget theorized that cognitive development progresses through four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. An infant/toddler in the sensorimotor stage learns primarily through the senses, such as touching and tasting, and physical exploration, such as grasping. A preschooler in the preoperational stage learns by interacting with people and materials. Young children in the concrete operational stage are able to think logically but only if provided with concrete materials to manipulate. However, older children and adolescents in the formal operational stage can engage in logical thinking at an abstract level. Piaget believed that all children progress through these stages in the same order but not necessarily at the same rate and that a chid could operate in more than one stage at a time. The implication for The Principled Academy is that the learning environment and activities must be related to the child`s stage of cognitive development.

Piaget differentiates three types of knowledge: social-conventional, physical, and logical-mathematical. All three types are acquired through The Principled Academy programs. Social-conventional knowledge is gained through association and requires teaching by others and some rote learning. For example, children learn specific skills, such as spelling correctly, reciting the alphabet, and naming the days of the week in this way. Physical knowledge is learned by discovery through the child's senses in firsthand experience. For example, the child learns the properties of a magnifying glass by using it. Logical-mathematical knowledge involves creating relationships between objects and symbols, such as when the child classifies objects, compares sizes, and identifies number concepts.

The Principled Academy staff believes that all three types of learning are necessary at both preschool and elementary school levels. In this approach children must create relationships among things and engage in problem-solving and creative thinking.

Cognitive research indicates that effective information processing in the brain is apparently based on the formation of related networks of information. This finding supports an integrated curriculum approach in which ideas, materials, and subject matter are tied together in rich and complex ways. In other words, children may learn more effectively not when material is broken down into its simplest components, but when related material is presented in a rich network in different modalities. Then the brain functions at its best in picking out the common patterns. Therefore, in studying California history, for example, The Principled Academy students do the more conventional library research, but also may construct large dioramas filled with figures and materials authentic to the period which they have made by hand or assembled; read children's literature both from and about the period; learn songs and hear music from the period; see art from the period and attempt to produce their own "period art"; and visit a ghost town and actually pan for gold to get a direct emotional, physical, and cognitive experience of that time.