Good Citizenship

"Good Citizenship" at Mandell is the first and most important element of our philosophical blueprint. It is a constant awareness on the part of our children, our families and our staff of the feelings and challenges of all other human beings as well as a heightened consciousness of our potential impact, both positive and negative, on the world around us.

Our approach to the development of "Good Citizenship" is incremental and continuous. We encourage the children to learn to solve interpersonal conflicts by helping them to integrate techniques of cooperation and compromise into their group activities. We structure our classrooms and the use of our materials in a manner that ensures the full participation of all the children. Our low student-teacher ratios and carefully designed classrooms encourage small group work and support risk-taking on the part of the students at all age levels. In this way we build the children's self-confidence as well as their belief in one another.

As the children mature, they become increasingly independent in their classrooms and in their learning. Through the modeling and practice of cooperative skills and collaborative learning, they are reminded of the importance of "citizenship" and their support of one another. We remind students of our values of Respect, Collaboration and Diversity and provide many opportunities for the development of self-control, self-esteem and consideration of classmates in the daily routine. We also give them opportunities to define for themselves and their peers what each of these values mean.

We feel that children do not genuinely mean to be unfair, unkind, insensitive or argumentative in any deliberate manner, and that our responses to negative behaviors are most productive when a positive solution is included in the context of our response. Language of positive reinforcement is used by our teachers and staff whenever possible. For example, they say "Please cooperate with your friends," rather than "Don't argue with your friends," or "Let's be fair," instead of "Don't be unfair." In this manner, we eliminate the negative words in our reminders to children while at the same time strongly encouraging the use of language as a powerful means of conflict resolution. When this framework is established at a young age it remains the guiding principals by which these students, as they become young adults, can regulate their interactions with one-another.

Through this emphasis on "Good Citizenship" Mandell students develop the social and emotional maturity that allows them to think and to act independently, but with constant regard for the needs and feelings of others and the world around them.

Academic Preparedness

Along with our focus on the social and emotional well-being of Mandell students is our goal to ensure their academic preparedness as manifested by a deep love of learning and a strong and accessible set of skills and knowledge. At Mandell, a love of learning, the development of skills and the pursuit of academic excellence are deeply connected to love of school and joy of collaborative exploration.

Mandell classrooms at all age levels are structured to include opportunities for observation, exploration, risk taking, experimentation and problem solving. We believe that these are key elements for a child's successful cognitive development. Our curriculum also includes many opportunities for teachers to assess the individual needs of every student. We strongly believe that the development of "academic preparedness" is unique for each individual child and it is our responsibility to know them intimately as a learner. As a result, “learning” at Mandell, while always incorporating math, science, literacy and overall language development, is engaging, challenging and fun.

Parent Involvement

Active and involved parents are an essential part of Mandell. We have a very diverse community from a wide variety of cultural and economic backgrounds and careers. We actively work to ensure that all parents, no matter what their schedules or time constraints, have meaningful opportunities to be involved. As a result, while a high level of participation is a given, the shape and form of such participation is as diverse as the parents themselves. This diversity of opportunity is possible because we believe in the importance of our parents contributions and they in turn all share the common value that their child or children are one of the most important, if not the most important element of their lives. With that shared priority, Mandell parents proactively support one another and their community.

First and foremost, we encourage parents to be deeply involved in their own child's career at Mandell. Then we ask them to find ways to bring their skills and passions into the classroom to share with all the children. Through its efforts, our PA not only supports the goals of the Mandell School Community but works to develop and implement avenues for families and staff to give back to the greater community around us. We are very proud of our parents and believe that their efforts are a large part of what makes Mandell such a special place.