Progressive Education – Blue Mountain School promotes Social-Emotional Learning and critical thinking through experiential activities and creative expression in a collaborative, project-based curriculum.

• The development and exploration of intrinsic values encouraged over extrinsic punishment-reward systems
• Teacher-student collaboration in the learning process; ‘doing with’ instead of ‘doing to’
• Social - Emotional Learning; consistent attention paid to the child’s social and emotional needs, in addition to their intellectual needs
• Project-based curriculum with subjects overlapping, as they often naturally do 
• Creative expression and reflection as a tool to find meaning and internalize learning

 

Contemplative Education – Blue Mountain School helps students develop their awareness, concentration, and insight. We strive to use processes that illuminate the innate wisdom of human beings and cultivate a growing sense of peace and wonderment in everyday life.

• Exploration of Wisdom Traditions as a means to understand the spirit
• Poetry and storytelling as a means to explore the human condition
• Movement arts as a means to explore and enhance one’s sense of physical connectedness and awareness
• Silence and meditation as a means for reflection and inner awareness
• Self mastery as a means to act with intention and thoughtfulness

 

How do they work together? Combined, these practices provide a holistic approach to education that nurtures the mind and the heart, the rational and the creative, the physical and the metaphysical; together, the Contemplative and Progressive models honor the whole child.

Values

Community & Diversity - Blue Mountain School celebrates diversity in its membership and the world. We  explore the wisdom traditions,  engage in service learning, and participate in the local community.

Relationships & Balance - Blue Mountain School nurtures loving and respectful relationships, and emotional balance. This is achieved through encouraging responsibility for oneself and others, developing self-confidence, stimulating passion, and demonstrating healthy living.

Reverence for Life - Blue Mountain School engages in environmental stewardship, utilizing nature-based activities coupled with an understanding of our interconnectedness to establish a genuine sense of responsibility in our students.

Our Pledge

I pledge allegiance to myself, to the soul inside me that is in everything: one person under peace, true to myself and others, treating people the way I want to be treated, and bringing love to Earth through the celebration of life.