Mission:
"The Walden School ignites intellectual curiosity and fosters independence in a peaceful, respectful culture."
Vision:
To create a diverse and engaged school community by promoting and sharing the Montessori educational philosophy and the values of peace, empathy, inclusivity, and stewardship.
Philosophy:
The Walden School’s Montessori based philosophy ensures that all children are successful. Children are led to discover their innate ability to learn, thus building independence, self-confidence, and inner discipline. The Walden School believes in the principles of promoting acceptance and inclusivity, embracing diversity, and inspiring human progress toward peace and harmony.
The Montessori Preschool/Kindergarten is most comprehensively described as freedom in a prepared environment. Following the principles of order, beauty, and simplicity, this environment is prepared with materials designed by Maria Montessori to accommodate each developmental stage. Children learn according to their own periods of interest and readiness. While there is respect for the child’s individualism, the environment in which he operates is well structured, providing opportunities for active learning, development of self-discipline, building of self-confidence, and responsible social behavior.
The Walden School’s elementary school embraces a guiding philosophy that blends Montessori values with 21st century skills. Students in the elementary school program at Walden are active participants in their learning as teachers consistently create and re-create to individualize instruction in a responsive and respectful classroom community. Children move naturally between independence and inter-dependence as needed and are consistently challenged to achieve their best. Active participation in the community prepares students to participate as critically thinking and caring citizens of the ever-changing world.
The guiding principles of collaboration and peaceful conflict resolution ready Walden students to be leaders in the 21st century. Teaching and learning at Walden is joyful and engaging. Students who graduate are confident, responsible, and love learning.
Diversity Statement
At The Walden School, diversity is addressed in natural and joyous ways. We strive to incorporate diversity issues and themes into our curriculum, classroom activities, assemblies and extracurricular events. In the classroom, the starting point is celebrating the cultural, ethnic, gender and religious diversity represented by the students. We also nurture respect for socioeconomic and family structure differences. We build this understanding through enrichment opportunities, such as buddy classrooms, intergenerational programs and local community service. We work to provide a richly textured cultural experience for the young learners by a variety of enrichment opportunities, many generated by parents and extended family members. Through these hands-on activities, as well as our similarities and differences, we hope to create an open, receptive school environment that embraces and institutionalizes the many faces surrounding diversity.
