In most schools there is a hierarchy of authority and responsibility from superintendent, principal, supervisors on down. Teachers often find themselves at the bottom of this pyramid. Here we teachers are active members of the Board of Directors, shaping the direction of The Antioch School. Along with parents, we are an important part of the community and help determine the policies under which we live and teach. Each teacher's intelligence, creativity and experience are recognized and valued. It is this which has helped shape The Antioch School philosophy over the years and has resulted in so many gifted teachers happily working for many decades at the school.
We are here day by day to answer the needs of the children. We encourage them as they find the ways to take personal responsibility for their behavior and their learning. We support them in their individual passions and along their own roads of discovery. We help stretch their imaginations. We value and respect the children's own spontaneous learning. We know these are the things which become the building blocks for more learning and which lead to the acquisition of necessary skills – from riding a unicycle to manipulating a quadratic equation.
We are enablers, questioners, mediators, guiders of skills, and referees. We are drama critics and producers, storytellers and song leaders. We are caretakers, binders of wounds, listeners and friends. The list is endless.
We are in partnership together with parents, sharing in the learning and growth of the children. We value parents' special knowledge and understanding of their children and realize how dependent we both are on one another. Neither of us can do it as well alone. Conferences and everyday conversations about the children – including the silly, the sad, the profound, the witty, the worrisome and the joyous – make an ongoing dialogue. It is a sharing of information and feelings as together we help free our children to learn and to make the most of all the possibilities they embody.
The Antioch School nurtures autonomy, a sense of self, and academic freedom for teachers as well as children. We treasure the respect that makes this possible and the trust it implies.
Weekly meetings of the teachers and school manager are a time for professional development and curriculum planning, as well as the forum for educational or administrative issues.