Purpose, Promise, and Beliefs

Wooster School is guided by our Purpose, Promise, and Beliefs, which represent the natural evolution of the school's mission since our founder, Reverend Aaron Coburn, charged us with preparing our students to be "gentle, generous, truthful, kind, and brave." These commitments remind us that as a school community we must learn from the past, embrace the present, and look to the future as we prepare our graduates for college and lives of purpose in a world of increasing complexity and change.

Our Beliefs

At Wooster School we believe that:

1. In order to think, learn, and teach well, all members of our community must feel physically, emotionally and intellectually safe.
2. Community members must be empathetic and communicate clearly, while taking responsibility for themselves, their actions, and the physical environment. The community, in turn, supports all of its members with reason and compassion. We call this Self-Help.
3. In order to develop core skills, dispositions, and knowledge our curriculum must combine high expectations, hard work, creativity, problem identification and solving, metacognition, reflection, deep thinking, and the frequent application of learning in authentic contexts.
4. Thinking, learning and feedback should be visible and individualized, so that over time, students can become more independent, and take greater ownership of their learning.
5. Having fun, playing, and developing a sense of humor, including the ability to laugh at oneself, are fundamental to learning -- and to a life well-lived.
6. Strong and positive relationships, particularly between teacher and learner, are essential to education and human development.
7. All teachers must be both independent and collaborative learners who look to apply new skills, dispositions, and knowledge within an ever-evolving inclusive educational landscape.
8. Building confidence through team sports and physical activity, as well as frequent opportunities for engagement with new experiences both inside and outside the classroom -- including those that produce risk-taking and discomfort -- is integral to learning.
9. Students must learn to appreciate and create art, music, theater and literature -- which often express the best thinking and wisdom of human culture -- so that they can tell their own stories, and understand the stories of others.
10. The development of a personal, moral and ethical framework, and the exploration of faith and the inner spirit, are essential elements of thoughtful human development.
11. Our community members must have the curiosity and courage to champion diversity, equity, justice, respect and inclusion for all. We strive to create a community where the identities and ideas of all members are valued and respected, and where it is safe to speak up when this ideal is not met. Further, we can best pursue equity, social justice, human rights, and global citizenship by engaging in personal conduct that exhibits the inclusivity, kindness, and generosity such a community demands.
12. As humans we must think and act in ways which acknowledge that we live on a planet in space with limited and precious resources. We have nowhere else to go.