Toward this end Pacem Learning Community offers intellectually challenging classes and social activities dedicated to peace, arts, community, environmental sciences, mindfulness and mastery.

Ultimately, Pacem helps students to follow their passions and envision themselves as the primary architects of their own destiny. Toward this end we empower students to take direct responsibility for their learning, allowing them ample time to study projects of their own design. Pacem’s team of teachers and advisors help students to discover, develop and pursue personal standards of excellence.

Pacem’s classes will be offered to homeschooled students ages 10 to 18 and their parents or guardians and eventually fulltime and homeschooled students ages 10 to 18 and their parents or guardians.

Culture

Pacem Learning Community is a joyful, creative, intellectually rigorous, and mindful community of students, teachers and parents who are deeply committed to creating a peaceful, just, imaginative and sustainable world.

We emphasize :

creative freedom and self-actualization;
peaceful conflict resolution;
ecological intelligence and connection to the natural world;
mastery of subjects and interconnected study;
a global perspective;
respectful and compassionate communication;
awareness of and service to the community;
inclusion of family and time for outside pursuits;
listening to one’s inner voice;
appreciation of differences;
gratefulness.

To create and maintain this atmosphere Pacem holds high expectations of the entire community of teachers, parents and students. Pacem’s faculty and staff strive daily to put these ideals into practice.

"I believe that the basic nature of human beings is gentle and compassionate. It is therefore in our own interest to encourage that nature, to make it live within us, to leave room for it to develop. If on the contrary we use violence, it is as if we voluntarily obstruct the positive side of human nature and prevent its evolution."

v His Holiness The Dalai Lama

Permission from Wilmington Friends School

Academic mission

v Pacem’s goal is for each student to graduate with:

the confidence and education to pursue their dreams;
the skills needed to help create a cooperative and sustainable world;
profound knowledge of and respect for our natural environment and the science behind it;
appreciation of the arts and its role in our lives;
a thorough grasp of the history and future of peace;
a complete understanding of the foundations of our participatory democracy and comprehension of the great responsibility we have in this country to be active and informed citizens;
an exceptional foundation of mathematical, scientific, technological, language and literary skills.

Pacem Learning Community’s educational principles are based on emergent curriculum, project approach and the Reggio Emilio system of documentation and review.

Pacem promotes life-long intellectual, spiritual and moral inquiry.

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.”

v Steve Jobs

“If we don the unchangeable armor of enthusiastic perserverence,
Then knowledge will increase within us like a waxing moon.”

v Tsong Khapa

“Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

v Steve Jobs

On freedom and individuality in school

v Pacem supports students in developing their unique strengths and passions and offers them a broad range of opportunities so that they may realize their full potential. Pacem encourages each student to find and listen to his/her inner voice and pursue his/her distinctive path rather than follow the many external voices imposed on our teenagers today. We believe, at Pacem, that when a student has found and followed that inner voice, he or she has a better chance to happily reach his or her full potential and find joy, passion and success in life.

"Students are far more invested in their learning if they are able to choose what they wish to learn. For are we to live our lives directed by the voices of others or are we to find our own inner voice and create our life true to that voice?"

v Amy Thornton-Kelly

Opportunities

v Pacem has many opportunities for choice, reflection and creative expression:

ÿ Pacem gives each student at least 6 hours per week of in-school time to focus and complete term to year-long projects of their choosing under the guidance of an experienced project advisor. Students may work individually or in a small group. The teaching staff may also offer group project classes for those students who want or need more direction. Students will document their learning in a variety of ways that draw on and develop their own strengths and learning styles. (See Academic Process: Project Approach for more detail.)

ÿ Time will be available daily for quiet, focused individual work on math and writing. A math and a writing teacher will be in the classroom during these times to help students progress at their own pace. (Separate creative and/or skill based math and writing classes topics will also be offered. See below.)

ÿ Pacem will have a weekly "silent" meeting in which students and staff members have the time to sit in silence, meditate, listen to their inner voice and speak if they feel called to do so.

ÿ When the choice of colleges looms on the horizon, Pacem encourages each student to seek a college or university that is a good match for the students interests, goals, needs, and learning styles rather than push each student toward a name-brand college with an inferior fit. Or, if the student wishes not to attend college, Pacem will help facilitate connections for the student to pursue his or her interests and goals.

ÿ The Pacem school year runs slightly longer than the average private school year so that there can be extra vacation days during the year for students to travel with their families, apprentice or have time to explore other interests.

"Everyone is expected to be a highly productive student but they do not all need to be turning out the same products."

v Dr. Mel Levine

"One of the strongest messages of peace we can send our children is to honor their true natures."

v Louise Diamond

"Expertise kindles intellectual self-esteem...knowing a lot about something instills a sense of what it is like to be thorough, to dig into knowledge in depth, to become more than an inquisitive sampler and dabbler."

v Dr. Mel Levine

Academic process

Philosophy