Empower Them as Students
Get Personal
Education is only meaningful when it is personal—when it connects with a student’s life and the real world. The Delphi Program helps students make that connection by having them explore and understand purpose—the reason for studying something and what it has to do with the student personally. This not only acts to help students clarify their own purpose for study, it helps them firm up their goals in life. Every Delphi student works from an individualized program that addresses his or her own strengths and weaknesses, goals and purposes. In this way, Delphi students receive a truly personal education and graduate focused on their future.
Put Ethics and Integrity at the Center
Ethics and integrity orient every aspect of one’s activities and relationships. In education, they have a particularly pivotal role. Even the best of programs can fail if these fundamentals receive little attention. Having vast amounts of information at one’s fingertips doesn’t ensure one has been well educated; much less that one will be successful in life.
A successful life demands integrity, along with the use of logic and reason, in determining right and wrong. That’s why you will see courses, activities and projects interwoven throughout the curriculum that strengthen honesty, accountability and character. We call it “developing backbone” and it is central to the success of The Delphi Program.
Fully Achieve the Basics
We’re zealots about the basics. By broadening the traditional concept of the basics (reading, writing and arithmetic) to include study, communication, research and reasoning skills, we give our students the essential building blocks for a successful life.
But we don’t just stress these basics. In each area we have set our competency standards high, and we work on them until each standard is attained. Then we can really get on with education while building on a firm foundation. The Delphi Program was designed from the ground up to fully achieve the basics in every student.
Emphasize Literacy
Literacy gets enormous attention in the Delphi Program. Highly literate people have the keys to a broad and penetrating understanding of concepts and cultures. The Delphi approach to literacy consists of building a step-by-step pathway to full comprehension.
Our students make liberal use of dictionaries and other reference books to achieve a complete grasp of what they study. Combine this focus on comprehension with our high-volume and rich literature program and you will see a student’s confidence and love of reading emerge. The ability to write and communicate effectively will improve dramatically.
We extend this approach to other fields as well, such as mathematics and high-tech, since fluency and competence in any subject depend wholly on a mastery of the language involved. To open doors in a world that depends on high levels of communication, information and technology, we emphasize literacy.
Keep it Real
The Delphi Program revolves around a basic concept—get students to use their educations to challenge life’s problems and goals every day they are in school. To ensure that occurs, demonstration and practical application can be found throughout the program.
There are field trips and exploration at the lower end, hands-on projects at every level and apprenticeships at the upper end. All along the way, we ask students to take real responsibility for themselves, for their educational programs and for the school community. It can be called the “show me” approach to education.
Learning and growing are naturally exciting activities. We simply want to keep them that way.
Involve Parents
Education takes teamwork. When students, faculty and parents together decide on common goals and line up as a team, almost anything can be accomplished. We invest in parents as team players by providing good coordination and making available important information about a student’s program, goals and progress. We expect to share strategies and insights on tackling difficult areas of academic progress or personal growth. And we always work to strengthen a student’s relationship with his or her parents.
In short, few things are more strategic or important to our success in helping students than our involvement with parents.
Demand Competence, Not Time Spent
Does a student understand and can he apply what he has learned?
At Delphi, that is the final question that the instructor as well as the student must answer before any educational step is considered complete. We hold each accountable for the student’s quality of study.
Students advance within the Delphi Program based on simple, unvarying criteria: a full understanding and an ability to use the information. Progress is not based on one’s age or the amount of time one spends at something.
This competency-based approach gives students the freedom to move quickly when it’s appropriate or to take more time with subjects that need it. It emphasizes results.
Delphi is a wonderful program, it emphasizes full comprehension of the materials being studied. In other words, instead of trying to handle a child with discipline or medication when they get a bit out of hand they take responsibility to locate the child’s confusion on the materials being studied. This is highly unique and requires experienced personnel to handle children this way.”
