Mirkwood School: Our Principles

Mirkwood School is founded on the following basic principles. These are agreements, meant to apply to all school members while they attend Mirkwood School. These are to be altered only with due consideration by a meeting of the members of both the school and Meadowdance Community.

Other than these fundamental values, the students and staff at Mirkwood work together using consensus to create other school Agreements as they are needed.

Mirkwood School is:

Cooperative

• The school is a community of people who support, care, and show respect for one another.
• The school emphasizes the joys and benefits of working with other people.
• School members are willing to deal with each other, and with conflicts, in a cooperative way.
• We depend on each school member to accept responsibility for his or her own self and for living by the agreements of the school.

Egalitarian

• We promote equality among all members, regardless of race, color, gender, spirituality, sexual orientation, background and age.
• All members have an equal say in school decisions. School decisions are made by formal consensus, as outlined in the text "On Conflict and Consensus" by C.T. Butler and Amy Rothstein. (See http://www.meadowdance.org/consensus.htm)

Healthy

• Violence and abuse, whether physical or emotional, have no place in our school.
• Any food provided by the school will be held to a high standard of healthfulness.
• The school will be free of tobacco smoke.
• We will nurture an environment of peace and joy.

Sustainable

• We are committed to practicing ideals of ecology and social responsibility.
• We seek to make a positive impact in our part of the world and cultivate beneficial relationships with the people of the surrounding towns and communities.
• We seek to encourage this and other models of human-centered education.
• The school and its members will uphold the law.