The James Baldwin School
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Mission statement
    • Co-Director's Corner
    • Staff Directory
    • The James Baldwin School in the press >
      • Press
    • Community Support Team
    • School Electronics Policy
    • Community Life >
      • Core Values
      • Crew
      • Town Meeting
      • Democracy Block
    • Annual Events >
      • 2017/2018 >
        • Crew Night 2017
        • Pi Day 2018
        • STEAM Nite 2018
      • 2018/2019
    • Our Affiliations
  • Parents
    • Calendar
    • What are PBATs?
    • JumpRope
    • Community Support Team
    • Mission statement
    • Core Values
  • Students
    • Core Values
    • Graduation Requirements >
      • Curriculum Offerings
      • Personal Education Plan (PEP)
      • Transcript Tutorial
    • What are PBATs? >
      • PBAT info
      • PBAT Resources
      • JumpRope
      • Jumprope Grade Conversion
    • baldwinnyc.org
    • Take a Chrome Home
    • Community Support Team
    • Tutoring Hours
    • Need A Request? >
      • Request a Student ID
      • Request a Transcript
      • Request a MetroCard
      • Democracy Block Change
      • Request a Reduced Schedule
      • Summer School
    • Extracurricular Activities
    • Sports Page
    • Alumni Page
  • Staff
    • Parking Lot
    • DOE Email
    • SESIS
    • NYC Shop Doe
    • SubCentral
    • Payroll Portal
  • Admissions
    • Application For the James Baldwin School
    • FAQ - Admissions
    • Contact Our Admissions Coordinator
    • Open Houses
  • Restorative Practices
    • Fairness Request
    • Peer Mediation Request
    • Contact our Restorative Justice Coordinator
    • Student Discipline Referral Form
  • Our Work
    • Future Office >
      • College Counseling >
        • Overview
        • Important Events
        • Junior Checklist
        • Senior Checklist
        • College Fair / Trip Calendar
        • Helpful Links
        • Sharon's Handouts
        • Scholarships
      • Work / Internships
      • Resume Template
    • Slideshows >
      • Archive of graduation >
        • June 2017 Memories
        • June 2016 Memories
        • June 2015 Memories
Our Mission Statement...

It is our mission to provide a philosophical and practical education for all students, an education that features creativity and inquiry, encourages habitual reading and productivity, as well as self-reflection and original thought. We agree with Socrates that the "unexamined life is not worth living,” and it is our desire to prepare students to live thoughtful and meaningful lives. We are committed to inspiring the love of learning in our students.

This mission can best be accomplished in a school that is a democratic community.  As a democratic community, we strive to exemplify the values of democracy: mutual respect, cooperation, empathy, the love of humankind, justice for all, and service to the world.

The James Baldwin School is college preparatory.  Our curriculum and pedagogy  prepare students for the rigors of college work and motivate them to desire and  plan for a higher education.  In preparing students for college we believe that we move students toward higher levels of intellectual engagement while they are in high school.

It is our mission, as well, at the James Baldwin School, to provide a haven for students who have previously experienced school as unresponsive to their needs as individuals.  We wish for all students to find their voice and to speak knowledgeably and thoughtfully on issues that concern their school, their world.  We aid students in this endeavor by personalizing our learning situations, by democratizing and humanizing the school environment, and by creating a “talking culture,” an atmosphere of informal intellectual discourse among students and faculty.


In order to achieve this, we intend…

  •  To restore a true understanding of the First Amendment: that freedom of expression is the highest democratic right and must be therefore taken seriously, and that democracy can only continue if opinions are based on evidence and meaningful thought;

  • To encourage students to become passionate thinkers, seekers of truth and beauty, advocates for justice;

  • To create an environment in which individuality is respected and cherished, an environment in which human beings are valued for the content of their character and the quality of their thought;

  • To address the problem of student cynicism through promoting intellectual behaviors which lead to students’ discovery of their own humanity and the value of human life, human feeling, human culture, human history, and the human endeavor;

  • To promote an ongoing dialogue about the educational process, and to create an atmosphere of mutual intellectual and artistic endeavor in which students and teachers learn from each other;

  • To cultivate the natural idealism of youth through promoting and honoring community work, and to acknowledge and engage the vital inter-dependency of the practical and the philosophical by creating meaningful external learning situations in the community at large;

  • To advocate for peace and non-violence through an understanding of history,  modeling respect and mutual esteem, and actively exploring and promoting alternatives to hurtful conflict in the realms of both interpersonal and political life;

  • To provide moral alternatives and to help students become morally sensitive people, and to establish the connections between the academic disciplines and moral action, the connections between learning and community,  thereby creating a just community in our school;

  • To employ the best progressive principles of education, to promote emotional as well as intellectual development, and to cultivate the various learning styles and intelligence present in all students.  To this effect, we advocate that depth of inquiry, not coverage of material, guide classroom instruction.


Picture
The James Baldwin School
A NYC Outward Bound School
351 West 18th Street
New York, New York 10011
212-627-2812
212-627-9803 (fax)
Get Directions
✕