Core Values

Nurturing in children a sense of self, a passion for learning, community, and childhood.

Core Values

OUR CORE VALUES

The Attic is built upon a developmental philosophy of learning, which recognizes that each child develops at his or her own rate. We do not expect all children to read, for example, at the same age, nor to understand certain mathematical concepts at the same age, nor to be able to understand abstract ideas at the same age.

All of the curriculum and other community activities at The Attic begin with the goal of supporting children as individuals, not as children who because they are a certain age, are required to learn and master certain things.

At the same time, we understand the importance of children being with their peers in age for social and emotional reasons. Because of this, our academic groups typically overlap in ages, to allow for the support both of developmental appropriateness of curriculum as well as social/emotional needs.

The Attic Learning Community nurtures four core values in children: sense of self, passion for learning, community, and childhood. These can be nurtured by supporting the characteristics listed below each, as follows:

A sense of self autonomy authenticity respect for children intrinsic motivation knowing myself as a learner freedom from rewards/punishments freedom from competition knowledge of self	A passion for learning authentic, meaningful contexts intrinsic motivation constructivist/developmental approach freedom from rewards/punishments freedom from competition time for independent study process over content solid core education life-long learning autonomy
Community multi-age respect & safety acceptance of self acceptance of others problem solving mentors peers/adults social and moral autonomy empathy diversity	Childhood time to know self family time safe community freedom to play acceptance of self multi-age

Many of our core values are reflected in the books on our recommended reading lists.