1. The primary purpose of education at KAIS is to foster children’s natural inclination towards joy and curiosity, and to assist them on their journey of self-discovery and self-fulfillment.
2. Our job as teachers is not to tell children what or how to think. At KAIS we are not in the business of promoting an ideology or elevating certain cultural practices over others. Our job, our duty as teachers is to open children’s eyes to the world’s unbounded possibilities. It is to mentor children as they seek to enrich their stock of knowledge, master essential skills, and develop their individual personalities in ways that give true meaning to their lives.
3. At KAIS we think of school life as constituting an important aspect of “real” life and not merely as a steppingstone or stopover on the way to “real” life. We realize that schooling must prepare children for their futures; but we believe that schooling must also have immediate relevance and significance for the lives they are living right now.
4. We at KAIS believe that the defining characteristics of the modern human are a love of compassionate sharing and the desire for true self-expression. With this in mind, we believe that schooling, through various collaborative and cooperative activities, should provide abundant opportunities to allow the free play and expression of these basic traits.
5. We believe first and foremost that children are persons. They have the natural right to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect. At KAIS, we do not talk down to children. We do not lecture or berate them. Rather than punishing or “making examples” of students for certain behaviors, we try to find effective ways to foster their ability to empathize with others and to recognize how their actions affect those around them. At times reprimands are necessary, but they are always given in a spirit of understanding and within the context of and as a concomitant part of helping the child to grow. Reprimands do not seek to shame or instill feelings of guilt, but rather to encourage self-reflection and self-improvement. At KAIS, we endeavor to help students to become engaged school citizens, to be active participants in school affairs who have a real voice in the school community. Through these “local” activities, students develop the compassion and confidence they need to become engaged members of the greater culture and global environment.
6. We of course do not know what technology will be like in twenty years, or how far it will have advanced. But we do know that current technology is already an integral part of children’s lives. We do not see technology as separate from human existence but as an extension of who we are and what we are capable of. Thus, at KAIS, we do not teach technology per se: we integrate technology into our lessons, thereby creating meaningful experiences in students’ lives right now and developing in them the tools and skills they need to carry on their lifelong journey of self-fulfillment.
7. Literature and history are worthy subjects of study in their own right, but at KAIS, we examine these and other subjects with a somewhat different objective. We mine these subjects for social and personal relevance; we study them as a way to shed light on the emotional and social and political issues that we face today. We do not glorify nor do we condemn the past. Rather, we see the past as a rich source of learning and object lessons. We see great literature and history as tools that will help students gain insight into human motives and motivation, that will give students a chance to see the peoples of past civilizations in their own context, that will afford students an opportunity to empathize and sympathize with their forebears’ errors and to emulate their successes so that we may better understand ourselves and our world today.
8. We at KAIS aim to inspire our students to strive to do their absolute best in everything they undertake. We provide them with the skills and caring support they need to overcome the low self-esteem, low expectations, and self-limiting habits that can prevent them from accomplishing their goals. We also believe that an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to develop multiple intelligences opens up myriad avenues through which students can learn essential skills and develop strength of character. Under the conventional “stative approach” to teaching and learning, children are apt to put restrictive labels on themselves and thereby limit their goals and underestimate their possibilities. The “process approach” used at KAIS prevents this self-limitation and helps students to understand that they are not “bad at math” or “good at English,” but rather that they are learners standing on a multi-faceted stairway that they can climb one step at a time through effort and effective strategies.
9. We at KAIS aim to help children master skills, not only because of a given skill’s future utility or earning capacity, but because the process of learning a skill—any skill—is a journey of self-discovery that in and of itself helps a child grow. At KAIS, we do not just “scratch the surface” of one skill after another, leaving each only half learned. Instead, we delve deeply into reading, writing, drawing, playing instruments, and other skills, extending the normal “limits” that children impose on themselves, helping them to break through obstacles such as boredom, indolence, fear of difficulty, low expectations, and lack of confidence.
10. KAIS teachers work together as teams to create the best possible learning atmosphere and classroom experience for our students. We embrace the interconnectedness and interdependence of all subjects, all fields of learning. We work openly in a spirit of trust and cooperation and mutual respect to take full advantage of that interconnectedness and the opportunities for cross-situational learning that it offers.
