It is completely amazing how different people are. And it is SO GOOD to learn how to put your own different talents into play, as well as to understand and learn from others’ differences as well.
It is even more amazing to learn good things from people who are not so much like you. We learn to learn at Memorial Private. Not just about scholastic subjects, but about people. You cannot keep a job when you feel awkward or have a hard time getting along with others.
At Memorial Private, we help to develop curiosity in our students – and that helps each of us reach out to get to know others a little more easily. Curiosity is a great thing and we focus on that. In fact, it is not always obvious – it is just built into our culture, purposely. If the school were bigger, so much of what the kids learn would not be available to this degree at all.This is because no one would be able to see every single student’s strengths and weaknesses, every day.
It is also amazing to see how people learn differently when we are curious. How quick and smart they are because no one is holding them back with too much standardization. Students can get more into areas in which they have strengths. But sometimes, they do not even know that they have those strengths. Because the school has a small student body, we can see that right away, for every single student. Same thing with students who struggle with their least favorite subjects, or with certain learning difficulties like ADD, or a medical concern.
Memorial Private can meet our students’ needs more fully than anywhere else because of the soon to be patented structure that MPS has formed, twenty years ago. By keeping the student body count low and manageable, we have an environment of collaboration and curiosity. Every day we have learned how this weird, small school can be so big in growth – in academic, spiritual, social, personal. We are just loving this more each year.