Oct
7
Written by:
Headmaster
10/7/2011 2:25 PM
Our Mission: Albert College inspires academic excellence, self-confidence, and sound moral values in a family environment.
Our Vision: Albert College is a small international school that utilizes its diversity, required participation in the 5’A’s, innovative programming and student leadership to develop global citizens within a climate of respect, compassion and mutual understanding.
Albert College certainly would not have been as diverse 154 years ago when it was founded, but they absolutely believed in a liberal arts education and they definitely promoted respect, compassion, and mutual understanding.
And what about Our Core Values? I could go on and on about each one of our core values but I would like to focus on the broad strokes of what it means to be a student at Albert College – what it means to be a member of the Albert College family.
Core Value #1 - Individuality: We respect all students for their unique talents and strive to work with students to develop programs that emphasize their personal strengths.
In this day and age, you might have thought a core value of individuality would have been about each person making a point of proving that they are an individual and a focus on the rights of the individual. But Albert has put a unique spin on this one. The focus is on respecting the unique talents of others - respecting others not focusing on or glorifying oneself.
#2 - Teaching Excellence: We will support strong teacher/student relationships that aid the learning process, inspire achievement and lifelong learning.
Again the focus is on the relationship. We need exceptionally well prepared teachers, which we have, and we need great equipment like wireless networks, SmartBoards, and so on, but, rest assured, the focus of this core value is on relationships. That is why we all attend an orientation camp each year before classes begin. For students to be truly inspired and want to be lifelong learning, they need to feel connected to their teachers.
#3 - Participation: The inclusion of all students in school programs fosters leadership, school spirit, and the development of the whole person.
We are a small school, and we are small by design. We do not want programs in which only the select few participate. We believe our programs are excellent and we want every student to experience them. Students will not slip through the cracks here. With 160 students we can still have 60 in the choir, or 30 playing chess, and so on. Every student is involved because that is what will make their time here memorable. As much as Mr. Guse would like to believe that it is Calculus students will be talking to their grandchildren about, we all know it will more likely be winning three gold medals in a single year in soccer, basketball and rugby, or their role in the drama production.
#4 - Caring Community: By listening to and supporting one another, we encourage an active, healthy, and safe community.
I think by now current students and parents have already seen this in action. We are a family. On Monday afternoon advisors took students around the school to help familiarize them with the school. Students in residence have already met all the residence supervisors and have had house meetings to help get them ready for how things will work this year. We expect returning students to help out the new ones. We expect older students to be positive, supportive role models for the younger ones. It comes back to being a family.
#5 - Moral and Spiritual values: We believe in the importance of love, truth, honesty, and service to others in enhancing spiritual growth.
Albert College was built by the Methodist Church and used to be affiliated with the United Church of Canada. We no longer have a church affiliation, and we welcome students from all faith backgrounds. This Core value speaks to Moral and Spiritual values, not theological values. It is our hope that throughout the year, not just in Chapel services, but in any number of ways, each student will give some thought to their own spiritual background, but our bigger goal is that they will consider the larger moral and ethical questions that transcend religions. I will often refer to the Golden Rule which is fundamental to all the major world religions. In a world plagued by crime and abuse at the individual, corporate and even national and international levels, we need each student to develop a moral compass that will help them make the right ethical decisions while they are here and after they graduate. As for service, students see a plaque at the back of the chapel that honours missionaries from Albert College. Today we do not send out missionaries, but we do send out service workers. The AC community provides service here in Belleville and around the world.
#6 - International Understanding: Living and learning with students from around the world promotes international understanding, cooperation, and peace.
There is no question that Albert College is its own little united nations. When I was touring a new student and his mom around the school on Sunday, we poked our heads in the gym where there was an impromptu soccer game going on with at least 10 nationalities taking part. I believe that the Albert College experience leads students to a point beyond simple racial or cultural tolerance to a point where they are virtually oblivious to external differences.
So those are our six core values. While I know the original founders of Albert College in 1857 would hardly recognize the Belleville of 2011, I have no doubt that they would be very happy with how close we have stayed to the fundamentals of what they envisioned.
Our predecessors had the same goals for their students in 1875 that we have for students today, and the same goals that their parents have for you today: we look for active engagement in student learning and sound use of the mind they have been given, and we want to ensure that they develop a strong moral and ethical framework within which they will use that mind.
The reason I have emphasized the history of the school here is to raise the bar a little bit. We have an obligation, not only to one another, but to the generations who have come before, to live up to what Albert College has always stood for.