Mission Statement

The mission of Benjamin Franklin International School is to embody the values of international education by creating a diverse environment that embraces multiple perspectives, broad-mindedness, and multilingualism. Benjamin Franklin International School provides a rich foundation in the liberal arts and sciences, as well as exposure to adults who are dedicated to meaningfully connecting teaching and learning to the world. In the partnership of learning between children and teachers, community is lived through experiences that foster personal responsibility, cooperation, imaginative thinking, problem solving, decision making, care, and respect. At Benjamin Franklin International School we view education as an opportunity for children to live fully and become global citizens able to build a more humane world.

Philosophy

Learning is both process and product. Measurable and mysterious. Predictable and spontaneous. The common variables are desire and diligence. All learning is active. All good teaching is driven by passion. As a school, we are committed to the idea that the growth of the mind and the development of intellect, imagination and sensibility are the main responsibilities of teachers in all grades and subject areas. We seek to educate every child from the standpoint of where he/she is, not where age or grade says he/she should be. Through coherency and consensus, we aspire to embody the kind of world we want our students to inhabit:

• where learning results from effort and desire
• where mistakes/problems are valued as opportunities for growth
• and where community life is the foundation for mutuality, respect and interdependence

Beliefs

• Education should be an experience that guarentees the full development of every student

• Knowledge is a combinationof understanding and exposure to the world and its cultures

• Our responsibility as an international school is to structure the opportunities for students to live as citizens of the world

• Students discover their humanity and sense of connectedness to each other, adults, and the world, by working, playing, creating and learning together

• Create an environment that raises lots of questions for students.  Once you have learned to ask relevant, appropriate and substantial questions-you have learned how to learn

• Creativity, collaboration, communication, empathy, and adaptability are not window dressing attributes. There is nothing soft about being multicultural. These are core abilities for flourishing in the globally interdependent world

• There is no one size fits all instruction or learning style. Teachers must be polyglots of instruction. All learners are starting from a different point and going to a different place

• Engaged learning, the kind we are trying to harvest, is rarely quiet and in neat rows. Engage kids in ways that matter to them, and you will spark attention and imagination.

• Isolation breeds insularity. Exposure promotes broad-mindedness. All good education is about an opening of doors

• Where adults are learning, so are students

• A work ethic is something that arises from passion and diligence. Every school needs a work ethic to define the kind of culture it wants to become