Our Story

Those of us who are members of the Network have seen the remarkable results achieved through the Teaching Approach applied at Sri Atmananda Memorial School in Kerala, India since 1987.  This Approach emphasizes a relationship of trust between teacher and child which creates a foundation of confidence and security for all aspects of the development of the person.  

The students at Sri Atmananda Memorial School, Kerala, India, the model school for the Teaching Approach, develop the outcomes that all of us are looking for: mastery of a core body of knowledge, problem-solving ability, team building, analytical skills, conflict resolution, ability to communicate, caring and compassion, creativity, and so on. These results have also been appreciated by educators abroad.

Those of us who became aware of these results naturally wanted to see that they benefited children everywhere. We came to realize, however, that the world is crowded with education strategies that often compete with one another.  In the face of these many different approaches, insufficient progress is made towards effective education that leads to the educational outcomes that many people have been seeking.  

In the interests of providing the greatest benefit to children, we decided to set aside the particulars of our own Teaching Approach in order to articulate a few basic principles that we thought represented common ground, a common vision for effective education.  

We see this effort as a collaborative one, involving all of us, including teachers, administrators, officials, the business world, parents, and private citizens.  

.We believe that if we unite around the most basic principles of effective education, we can bring about significant changes in education to benefit children and the world. We do not see this effort as “alternative” vs. “mainstream” education.  We see it as effective education, pure and simple.