Middletown Public Schools                                                                       No. 0000

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

            As a comprehensive school system, Middletown strives to serve the needs and interests of every student by offering a variety of programs, courses, and activities.  Each student should be enrolled in a program of studies designed to accommodate individual needs, interests, and goals.  Moreover, Middletown Public Schools believe that each student shall have opportunities to pursue non-academic interests selected from a variety of school sponsored activities.  Middletown Public Schools encourage each individual to accept responsibility for assuming a productive role within society by attempting to make his/her school a microcosm of the community and a place where opportunities for decision making and participation are available.

            Middletown Public Schools recognize that each student grows at a different rate in a variety of developmental modes:  intellectual, physical, aesthetic, social, emotional, and philosophical.  Middletown Public Schools believe that learning flourishes in a supportive environment; therefore, it values the initiatives and rights of its students.  Every student is encouraged to make decisions, express opinions, and develop personal values.  To assist in that development, Middletown Public Schools seek to provide a competent teaching faculty, qualified support personnel, sufficient material resources, and meaningful non-academic experiences.

            Middletown Public Schools acknowledge its obligation to help students assume a productive role in the community, the nation, and the world.  The security, welfare, and progress of society depend upon the active participation of each member.  Accordingly, our society’s diverse ethnic, racial, and cultural composition enriches the community’s fabric.  Middletown Public Schools encourage each member of the school community to contribute to the greater community and seek to foster in its students the recognition that personal decisions have an impact upon the welfare of the whole.

            As a reflection of its philosophy, Middletown Public Schools aspire to ensure that each of its schools shall provide every student the following:

• An opportunity for each person to develop one’s intellect and capacity to achieve maximum potential in the ability to think and proceed logically.
• An opportunity for each person to advance the dignity of humanity by learning to live cooperatively with other individuals, groups and organizations by developing an understanding of the past, an identification with the present, and an ability to cope with the future.
• An opportunity for each person to develop a feeling of positive self-worth, security, and self-assurance.
• An opportunity for each person to understand universal concepts and believes in order to develop moral and ethical values and goals.
• An opportunity for each person to cultivate an appreciation for beauty in all of its forms and to develop creative self-expression through various media.
• An opportunity for each person to develop an awareness of the requirements and opportunities related to the world of work, to be able to choose a career suited to his or her talents and aspirations, and to acquire the competencies to pursue that career.
• An opportunity for each person to create a healthier and more beautiful world by developing skills in the management of natural and human resources and man’s environment.
• An opportunity for each person to understand and evaluate economic needs, values, and systems to develop skills in order to function as an informed consumer; to enhance the quality of life; and to contribute to the common good of family, society, and state.
• An opportunity for each person to develop an understanding of and an appreciation for the obligations and responsibilities of citizenship.

1^st Reading – January 15, 2009

2^nd Reading and Approval – February 12, 2009