The School District of Edgar recognizes that education is a precious asset of utmost value to an individual. Therefore, the general objectives of the Edgar School Board are to provide the best possible education to the youth of our community that our resources allow. However, we also recognize that education is not a commodity, for one can neither purchase one or receive it as a gift. And in that sense, one cannot force an education on another.
Education is now and always has been a continuing, never-ending and life-long process. To learn is to grow. The successful citizens of the decades ahead will be those individuals who have learned how to learn. They will be those individuals who can understand the political, social, economic, and scientific forces which affect them personally and the business, industry or institution in which they are employed. They will be those individuals who are prepared to cope with life and to cope with change. They will be those individuals who study the past to understand the present to better predict the future.
As a school, we must develop the talents of each child and his ability to think for himself. We must teach and emphasize the values that our students will need to become happy, productive, and law-abiding citizens. We must teach our students in such a way that they will continue to learn when they graduate, and when school is no longer around to assist them.
Realizing that everyone's future will fall into the hands of today's youth, we must prepare our students to assume responsibility for handling the affairs of the community, state, and nation. We must teach our young to be independent and yet responsible and cooperative members of our society. To do this, we need to develop individuals who can communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. We need more people who cannot only see and present the problem, but who can do something about solving them.
Our general school curriculum should be diverse enough to meet the needs of the handicapped as well as those with special abilities. Though our main emphasis should be on basic education, we must provide our young people with opportunities to develop individually, to help them become physically, mentally, and psychologically strong.
This philosophy of education we feel is the basis for our official operating policies.
"That which the wisest and best parent wants for his own child--that must the community want for all its children. --Any other ideal destroys our democracy."
John Dewey
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