The Values of Seattle Academy
The most important factor in the success of Seattle Academy is the existence of supportive relationships between and among students and teachers and among faculty, administrators, and parents. These supportive relationships are the direct result of social interactions that are governed and guided by the SAAS core values.
It is our aspiration that the Seattle Academy community shares these core values and demonstrates them in all communications and action.
Trust
- Trust is the sense that I will assume you to be an honorable person until you prove otherwise, and you will do the same for me, until I prove otherwise. And before I assume otherwise, I’ll talk to you about it.
- The absence of trust is reactive negativity (that response pattern predicated upon an antagonistic “us versus them” premise).
Respect
- Respect is the sense that I value what you are and who you are. If I do not understand what or who you are, I will learn about you and your background and form my own judgments rather than listening to the judgments of others.
- I will express my judgments with civility, which is an essential component of respect.
Integrity
- Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. It is the combination of the willingness to discover who I am and the courage to be who I am and the willingness to understand who you are and the courage to allow you to be who you are.
- Integrity requires that I seek out those experiences that push me beyond self-imposed boundaries and perceived limits and that I be supportive of others who are doing the same.
- The absence of integrity is taking the easy way out when you know that the easy way is not the right way.
Responsibility
- Responsibility is the sense that I am directly accountable for who I am and for what I do, and indirectly accountable for the quality of life within the SAAS community.
- Responsibility requires that I be willing to ask for and accept help when I need it, and to aid others when they need it.
- The absence of responsibility is either complaining, which includes a denial of any personal responsibility for problems or for the quality of community life; or, worse, assigning the blame for a problem to another when some or all of the cause is rooted within one’s self.