Philosophy
What’s the story behind the name?
Humanitas is the Latin word for kindness and humane learning. It has been used throughout history to describe the characteristics of a well educated person; one who is benevolent, kind, dignified, courteous, practical, rational and committed to educating themselves to the best of their abilities in order to lead a life that is of the utmost quality (pleasurable, joyful, productive and prosperous). It describes connecting to a common universal humanity and fulfilling your potential as a human being in order to benefit civilisation as a whole.
We fell in love with the word humanitas as a way to encapsulate the spirit of our school - a place where kindness, joy and quality education intersect. A place that treats young people as humans worthy of the utmost respect and empowers them to treat others around them in the same way, a place that values them not as future citizens but citizens right now, able to make decisions, solve problems, participate in their community and be happy.
Educational Philosophy and Vision
Our vision is to create a high school that is democratic, choice-driven, high-end and joyful. Where students can participate in individual deep learning projects, community projects building connections and solving real problems in their community, and core curriculum to gain knowledge, in a variety of areas, through personally tailored and meaningful ways. Humanitas High School is a place of thoughtfulness and learning, where teachers and students work collaboratively with an attitude of mutual respect.
Want to read more about how that looks in practice? Head to our Learning page.
Guiding Principles
Joy: Humanitas High School is a joyful place to learn, connect and work. The happiness of our students, staff and parents is valued.
Self-directed learning: Humanitas High School students, staff and parents are involved in decisions about their learning, and their learning is connected to their interests and needs.
Democracy: Students, staff and parents have a say in decisions that affect them.
Kindness: Students, staff and parents of Humanitas High School are encouraged to be thoughtful and act with consideration.
Community: The school serves as a home-base to extend learning across the wider community, including real-life learning opportunities, accessing resources, making local, national and global community connections and delivering community projects with specific outcomes.
Every student making progress: All students have individualised learning plans and utilise tracking technology to ensure they are making progress in their learning goals.
What is democratic education?
Humanitas High School is a democratic learning community. Democratic education is a broad concept, and there are many hundreds of democratic schools around the globe. All are connected by their belief that students can and should be involved in decisions that affect them, including curriculum and school management. This power-sharing also respects adults, especially teachers and parents, to be equally involved in these decisions. Democratic education is not a new concept - in fact its roots go back to John Dewey, the founder of inquiry-based learning, who wrote Democracy and Education in 1916. In recent years, modern learning theories such as agile learning theory, have been embraced by the democratic education movement.
One definition of democratic education that we like is “education in which young people have the freedom to organize their daily activities, and in which there is equality and democratic decision-making among young people and adults,” (2019, AERO, Directory of Democratic Education, https://www.educationrevolution.org/store/findaschool/democraticschools/)
We are connected to democratic schools across the globe through our participation as members of the Australasian Democratic Education Community (www.adec.edu.au), Asia-Pacific Democratic Education Community, International Democratic Education Community and Alternate Education Resource Organisation (www.educationrevolution.org). We also support the work the Agile Learning Centres (www.agilelearningcenters.org), utilising Agile Learning tools as part of our processes and strategies.
