From The Teachers' Meeting: Curriculum

Here is the "Curriculum & Approach To Teaching" that the Faculty drew up yesterday at their meeting:

Harborside School is an independent school that offers the pre-kindergarten through eighth grades the resources of downtown San Diego, striving at all times to build a unique and high-quality educational experience. The academic program emphasizes a project-based, hands-on, interdisciplinary style of learning that provides the students with lessons that acknowledge and foster the individual strengths of self-motivation, commitment to learning, social awareness, problem solving and critical thinking of each student while also supplying individual support for increased competency across the learning spectrum. We are committed to building a community of confident, independent learners in a cooperative environment and to developing among our students the virtues of thoughtful and constructive citizenship. We strive to provide academic excellence and become the school of choice within our urban community.

Teachers' lessons are geared toward fostering student initiative, rather than the standardized, one-size-fits-all approach geared toward lecture, rote worksheets, and textbook-oriented chapter tests.

Inquiry-based learning fosters, rather than inhibits, the natural curiosity of adolescents at an age where they are becoming increasingly aware of the larger world around them. The development of critical thinking skills as they are applied in the classroom is more than just an academic exercise-- it is essential for healthy civic engagement with society that these students will inherit as adults.

The constructivist model relies on research indicating that the deepest understanding of knowledge is created through exploration, reasoning, and discussion. If you reflect for a moment on how you, as an adult learn a new concept or skill, you are most likely to find that interaction, questioning, and practice each play a part.

Our program emphasizes extending the classroom into the urban community using the many resources the city of San Diego has to offer. We also emphasize participation and community service by both our parents and our students. The academic program progresses from the acquisition of strong foundational skills through the development of critical analysis using exploration and project based learning both inside the classroom and in the greater community. The program is designed to reach beyond the standards outlined by the state.