OUTCOMES OF MIDDLE WAY EDUCATION

Using the current best practices in progressive education, Middle Way aims for a high level of academic achievement while simultaneously guiding students to understand Buddhist history, philosophy, and practice from the perspective of different lineages and traditions. Whether or not they choose to practice or to label themselves as Buddhists, the education encourages students to face the world with curiosity and compassion, dignity and confidence, and a healthy amount of playfulness. We intend to create and environment in which our students can become connected, actively-involved, life-long learners, with a great capacity to manifest for the benefit of themselves and others.

Our aspiration is that students will leave the Middle Way School with an enormous freedom and capacity to manifest for the benefit of themselves and others in whatever way their karmic forces lead them.

 

AS HUMAN BEINGS MOVING THROUGH THE PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT, STUDENTS WILL CULTIVATE:
  • awareness of how conduct impacts relationships
  • awareness of and curiosity about how emotions work
  • appreciation for the necessity of relationships
  • the skills and training to understand the phenomenal world
  • finely tuned capacities for metacognition, cognitive flexibility, and impulse control
  • somatic awareness and engagement with physical experience as the foundation for discipline, meditation, and intellectual exploration
AS ACTIVELY INVOLVED CITIZENS, GRADUATES OF THE MIDDLE WAY SCHOOL WILL:

 

  • have the ability to find and use information with critical discrimination
  • understand their responsibilities, roles, and opportunities in society
  • feel empowered to contribute to the well-being of their world—socially, culturally, economically, and environmentally
  • value and naturally adopt the practice of nonviolence
  • participate as informed decision makers
  • have the discriminating intelligence and skillful means to know when and how to challenge invalid assumptions and dogmas, while recognizing and respecting the disciplines, rules, and structures of the world around them
  • understand the challenges of effective communication and mobilization
  • be prepared to excel in the next phase of their education, whether it be as a yogi, or a mathematician, an artist, an entrepreneur, an innovator, or a leader.
  • have a strong relationship to sustainable practices of living
AS CONTENDED INDIVIDUALS, STUDENTS WILL BE:
  • guided by the compass of their own altruistic intention
  • wary of a materialist worldview and dualistic thinking
  • curious and open minded
  • connected to Buddhist traditions, on their own terms, through personal experience
  • capable of questioning assumptions and suspending habitual thinking through the study of Buddhist logic and wisdom
  • compassionate and empathetic with a nuanced capacity for interpersonal exchange
  • open to the lessons learned through obstacles, welcoming rather than rejecting all aspects of experience
  • open to the value of the unseen world
AS LIFE-LONG LEARNERS, STUDENTS WILL APPROACH LEARNING WITH:
  • discernment, a penchant for problem-solving, and mastery of skills and content
  • humility
  • a deep respect for tradition
  • the commitment to honor diversity without arrogance
  • an appreciation for the power of creative process
  • grace and ease, balancing effort and effortlessness
  • a keen sense of timing
  • personal responsibility
  • a strong sensory relationship to the natural world
  • high tolerance for ambiguity
  • a habit of being in awe
  • a sense of humor