Character Development
Cultivating Strength, Resiliency, and Sensitivity
Building on its enduring Credo—Think Also of the Comfort and the Rights of Others—and guided by its Core Values—critical thinking, integrity, empathy, community, and diversity—WT guides students to become exemplary citizens and leaders through intentional social and emotional development.
Building Community and Integrity
Each student is valued as an important member of the classroom community, learning assertion and empathy through formal and informal approaches, both in and out of the classroom. Part of our private elementary school’s Mission is to foster each student’s moral development and sense of personal responsibility.
- The Responsive Classroom® approach, developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children, Inc., fosters safe, challenging, and joyful classrooms. Our skilled teachers use the Responsive Classroom® philosophy, closely aligned with WT’s Core Values, to guide their instruction, their interactions with children and parents, and their overall approach as educators.
- At WT, teachers fully embrace student leadership and the Responsive Classroom® approach through daily Morning Meetings, class developed rules, intentional modeling of behavior and expectations, and directed social intervention to aid student problem solving.
- Morning Meeting lessons are built based on cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.
- Cultivating leadership skills at an early age teaches students to think critically about their environment and allows them to explore citizenship, democracy, and diversity as fundamental components of a thriving community.
- As leaders of the Lower School, fifth grade students run the monthly Morning Meetings, which gives them the opportunity to set goals for the Lower School and communicate these goals to their peers.
A group of fifth grade students comprises the Lower School Leadership Council, meeting to discuss relevant topics and solve appropriate problems related to student life.