School Values
The Cambridge Schools are dedicated to building thoughtful citizens. It is our mission that all our students have the following qualities:
School Values
It is well accepted that values are not taught to children, but are imbibed by them from the actions of the people they look up to, especially parents and teachers. Talking about what is good or bad without setting an example, would teach only hypocrisy and artifice. It is our attempt, therefore, to create a culture in the class-room and the school, where the values we consider important are naturally absorbed and practiced. They are listed below with the wish that parents will practice them at home so that children are not confused by mixed or contradicting signals.
Community mindedness
In keeping with the school’s motto
‘We Learn to Serve’ Cambridge School develops students who use their education, skills and resources for the benefit of the entire community and not just for their own well being.
Our students are encouraged to be concerned about other people, willing to listen and help in time of need, and behave with genuine good manners and respect, irrespective of social hierarchies. Community mindedness also extends to civic sense and care of public property.
Justice
Children have an innate sense of justice, which is frequently outraged by unfair treatment. Those frequently exposed to injustice, become cynical and learn that being ‘good’ does not matter. It will be our attempt to reinforce children’s natural sense of justice and idealism by providing as fair an environment as possible.
Despite having said that justice is the most desirable of virtues, we know that life is frequently unfair – starting from the accident, unequal birth to the natural inequalities of genetics. Our challenge is to give our children the sensitivity to recognize injustice; the courage to resist it wherever change is possible along with the wisdom to not let it immobilize them or make them cynical, whenever it must be accepted.
Rationality and clarity of thought
The ability to think clearly is a critical skill. It enables us to cut through confusing and seemingly contradictory factors and have truly insightful and independent views.
Clear, rational thinking is the foundation of effective communication. Clarity of thought leads to clarity of communication and gets to the heart of the matter with elegance and simplicity. It is an essential leadership skill.
Global Outlook
Cambridge School students are expected to be respectful of diversity, comfortable in it, and even enjoy it.
We want our students to experience and realize that underlying all diversity are the universal values of humanity – common to all nations and communities.
Commitment to environmental sustainability, concern for nature and other forms of life
Human beings tend to forget that the planet they inhabit is home to other species as well, and that their claim on the earth is as valid as ours.
Being perhaps the most intelligent species, we must show our intelligence not only in technological progress but also in learning to cooperate to preserve the planet and its many forms of life.
The earth and its environment is under unprecedented stress. Without a commitment to a much more sustainable lifestyle, our own survival as a species is at stake.
Cambridge School students will, we believe, become leaders and members of pressure groups to save us from this existential crisis.
