In most schools there is a hierarchy of authority and responsibility from superintendent, principal, supervisors on down. Teachers often find themselves at the bottom of this pyramid. Here we teachers are active members of the Board of Directors, shaping the direction of The Antioch School. Along with parents, we are an important part of the community and help determine the policies under which we live and teach. Each teacher's intelligence, creativity and experience are recognized and valued. It is this which has helped shape The Antioch School philosophy over the years.

We are here day by day to answer the needs of our children. We encourage them as they find the ways to take personal responsibility for their behavior and their learning. We support them in their individual passions and along their own roads of discovery. We help stretch their imaginations. We value and respect their own spontaneous learning. We know these are the things which become the building blocks for more learning and which lead to the acquisition of necessary skills – from riding a unicycle to manipulating a quadratic equation.

As teachers we are enablers, questioners, mediators, guiders of skills, and referees. We are drama critics and producers, storytellers and song leaders. We are caretakers, binders of wounds, listeners and friends. The list is endless.

As teachers and as parents, we have the opportunity to see our children from slightly different perspectives. We value parents' special knowledge and understanding of their children and realize how dependent we both are on one another. We are in partnership together, sharing in the learning and growth of the children. Neither of us can do it as well alone.

Conferences and everyday conversations about the children – including the silly, the sad, the profound, the witty, the worrisome and the joyous – make an ongoing dialogue. It is a sharing of information and feelings as together we help free our children to learn and to make the most of all the possibilities they embody.

The Antioch School nurtures autonomy, a sense of self, and academic freedom for teachers as well as children. We treasure the respect that makes this possible and the trust it implies.