IA, Philosophy of Education

FILE: IA

PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

The Catahoula Parish School Board is committed and dedicated to providing a high quality education that prepares our youth for the demands of the 21st century. The primary goals of our school system are to guide students toward their maximum development based on individual needs and interests, to provide a curriculum that prepares all students to attain adopted state standards, and to assure an atmosphere conducive to learning. Further, the Catahoula Parish School System is committed to the implementation and achievement of the Goals 2000 Educate America Act.

Further, the Catahoula Parish School Board, by establishing uniform guidelines for personnel evaluation, strives to ensure that certified and other professional personnel focus on providing the best educational opportunities for all students. The continued enhancement of learning through professional growth of educators is an integral component of this process which is aimed at improving instruction and the learning environment for all students.

The Catahoula Parish School Board affirms and supports the belief that every effort possible be expended to ensure the identification and retention of the most competent and qualified personnel and to ensure the strengthening of the formal learning environment.

OBJECTIVES

Education is preparation for life. The purpose of education is the development of the individual to the limit of his/her capacity for complete living in our society. The school is only one agency concerned with the education of children; the home, the church, the community and other agencies share this responsibility.

1.	We have the responsibility for developing each child to the maximum of his/her ability according to his/her interests and needs. The school must provide ways to identify the abilities, interests, and needs of each child to attain scholastic proficiency and must also provide the staff, instructional materials, facilities, and an organized curriculum that will assure each child an equal opportunity to attain this goal.
2.	We have a primary responsibility for reading, writing, mathematics, spelling, and the basic essentials of oral and written communication.
3.	We must provide guidance services for students in order that they may identify their abilities and interests and aid them in the selection of courses that will lead toward the goals they have selected.
4.	We must provide instruction so that children may learn to take care of themselves physically, to acquire good health habits that promote substance-free living, and to observe the rules of safety at home, at school and in the community.
5.	We must provide opportunities for students to demonstrate and practice the democratic way of life. These opportunities should occur in the classroom and in various extracurricular activities.
6.	We must teach students tolerance of other people and their ideas; likewise, we must model for them self-respect and respect for others.
7.	We must teach students to understand and support the desirable agencies in the community that share in the responsibility of the education of children; in accordance, we should inform these agencies of the importance of the entire community's participation in creating and maintaining the best possible educational system for our children.
8.	We have the responsibility of organizing the curriculum in such a way that the students will learn and maintain skills that will enable them to contribute to society in general.
9.	We accept the challenge for shaping our curriculum to provide technological instruction to prepare our students for a successful and productive life in the twenty-first century.
10.	We are responsible for teaching students how to use their leisure time well and to budget time wisely so that they may lead full and happy lives.
11.	We are responsible for providing a drug-free learning environment where substance-free lives are modeled for students.
12.	We must teach students to appreciate and understand high moral and ethical standards of society.

Catahoula Parish School Board