Creating Leaders for Our World

The highly skilled group of visionaries and the team of educators at the Peace Academy model the village we dream to create for our children. We are committed to serving as a model of excellence, coexistence, and peace on Earth, in partnership with our parents and the larger community of SLO County. Through real-world applications, students are empowered to learn more about each other, embrace differences, and learn how to build on each other's strengths in a way that inspires creative innovation.

Math, science, humanities, and arts are integrated into big ideas, so they become tools to create competent and compassionate leaders for an interconnected and increasingly globalized world. The Peace Academy of the Sciences and Arts lifelong learning community aspires to prepare students for their future by:

• developing the whole child
• implementing innovative instructional strategies
• preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist
• empowering students to interact globally

The Peace Academy’s Three Pillars of Compassionate Leadership

• Self-awareness: For students to understand how to reflect and become confident in their own connection with nature and humanity on a spiritual, social, artistic, and scientific level. For students to become emotionally intelligent, to empathize, and understand their interactions with others.
• Global citizenship: For students to understand people’s diverse backgrounds, including faith, without judgment, in order to understand the complexity of humanity and to become competent world citizens.
• Social Justice and Environmental Stewardship: To establish a common thread of care for the world and its people; to understand the human impact on the planet.

Our Teaching Philosophy...

To foster students’ sense of belonging & empower their innate ability to create beautiful things for our world.

• Real World Applications: All learning will have a purpose, and the objectives will be interrelated. Subjects are not taught in isolation, but rather integrated through real-world applications.
• Emotionally Safe Environment for Creative Innovation: Teachers are dedicated to cultivating a culture of care, discovery and creative innovation. Students will use their own curiosities to problem solve through an interdisciplinary and interactive curriculum so that they each reach their highest potential in becoming a peace leader for our world.
• A Thread of Core Human Values: A key component of our culture is lifelong learning through exposure to diversity coupled with a compelling sense of belonging. By learning core human values expressed in cultures and faith traditions from all over the world, students will learn that together, we are strong and that our differences make us even stronger. Students will gain a deeper understanding of themselves, each other, and the world.

Values-based Curriculum

Values are infused into students’ daily interactions and modeled by our educators. This serves to enrich students’ academic experiences with positive social interactions, empathy, and emotional intelligence.

The core human values of focus: 
Peace and Peacemaking, Humility, Compassion, Kindness,
Seeking Knowledge and Wisdom, Generosity, Gratitude, and Love.

Community Objectives

• students identify and celebrate their individual uniqueness.
• students are nurtured in an intellectually safe, yet robust educational environment.
• students are empowered to problem-solve and critically think through hands-on and interactive experiences.
• students thrive in an emotionally safe environment and learn how to maintain their socio-emotional health and mental well-being.
• students build a sense of emotional intelligence and care for others.
• students develop an understanding of social justice issues and are equipped with conflict resolution skills.
• students connect with nature, spiritually and scientifically.
• students become globally compassionate citizens who are competent caretakers and peace leaders for our world
• educators value and embrace each student as an integral part of the school’s fabric.
• educators take a holistic approach to guiding students through their journey of discovery.
• educators leverage each student’s unique strengths so that they understand their potential and learns to seek out opportunities, and share their gifts.
• families partner with educators in developing each student’s self-awareness, moral compass, and stewardship of the planet.
• families, educators, and students work together to serve SLO, our global community and learn to care for planet Earth.