Grounded in the western tradition of education, but innovative in our approach to education, the Northridge Institute offers a vision of a liberal arts classroom that rests upon four solid pillars:
Teacher's content mastery
The mind is not a bucket to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” -Plutarch
Every classroom needs a guide. After all, you cannot give what you do not have. Real learning requires teachers to possess a deep knowledge of their subject. Such teachers share their expertise, their experience, but more than that, their love of the subject with their students. The human will naturally desires what is good, according to Aquinas. Teachers do not merely give knowledge like filling a bucket. At their best, they kindle a student’s affection and turn their will toward something good.
Active learning
Learning consists, not merely in the passive reception into the mind of a number of ideas hitherto unknown to it, but in the mind’s energetic and simultaneous action upon and towards and among those new ideas. - John Henry Newman
All education is some form of self-education because learning is never a passive activity. That is why we teachers must always keep in mind what we want our students to do in a lesson, not only what we plan for them to know at the end of it. Aristotle noted that “men become builders by building.” Just so, our students become liberally educated–men who can think freely–by practicing the work of thinking.
Friendship-among-unequals
There is another kind of friendship, namely, that between unequal parties. -Aristotle
Although students and teachers should never be “equals” in the classroom, students cannot learn from those they do not respect. A kind of friendship should exist between students and teachers stemming from good will, but with the two parties owing each other different things. From the student, respect and effort; from the teacher, care and encouragement. As a friendship between unequals grows, it allows the teacher to give more freedom to the student; and when the student uses that freedom well, it results in more respect for the teacher.
A spirit of adventure
An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered. - G.K. Chesterton
Adventure is not just for overnights or trips. Each challenge, even failure, is a chance to grow rather than a reason to retreat. A spirit of optimism, adventure, and a growth mindset offers students the opportunity to learn from mistakes, both in the classroom and in life. This is the goal of our education: to equip students with the virtue to face the challenges of life and the problems of the world with a gritty optimism. The rubric for success is not “did my students pass the test in my classroom,” but rather “are they facing the challenges of life with a spirit of adventure ten years after they graduate?”