PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
The mission of The Seattle School is to train people to be competent in the study of text, soul, and culture in order to serve God and neighbor through transforming relationships.
We strive to create a Christian educational community where students will think critically and creatively, engage authentically and relationally, and embody a synthesis of text, soul and culture that moves us outward into the larger community, the church, and the world. Through an integrated and intentional process of formation, students are invited to pursue life-long learning, personal and spiritual growth, and effective service that reflects the presence and action of Christ in the world.
Foundational to our worldview is the understanding that God the Creator and Revealer is the source of all knowledge and insight. Though Scripture, the natural world, human history and inter-personal relationships, we come to apprehend and practice truth. Growth in knowing God and others is possible because humans have been made in God’s image, with the capacity to learn and love.
We believe that all truth is God’s truth, whatever its source, though with the Church of all ages, we confess that the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are the written word of God. We give thanks for them as God’s gift, inspired by the Holy Spirit, transmitted by God’s servants. We receive them as entirely true and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct and as the authoritative guide to our identity and vocation, bringing us to the fullness of life in the living Word Jesus Christ.
The Seattle School is an evangelical and progressive institution. We gladly submit to the authority of Scripture and a hermeneutical framework that interprets the Bible in light of its literary, historical, theological, and cultural contexts. We practice relational hermeneutics in a fully human, incarnational, soul-engaged, and heart-transforming encounter that involves the personal worldview of the interpreter as much as the critical process of textual interpretation.
Education at The Seattle School encourages the holistic development of students, with their unique abilities and giftedness, to love and serve God and others with all their heart, soul and mind. The Seattle School students should be able to demonstrate their commitment to Christ, to think theologically and relationally about contemporary issues, respond practically and effectively to their sense of God’s calling, live lives of holy love, and become transforming influences for God’s kingdom in their diverse cultural settings.
At The Seattle School, students are valued as learners who are integral to our educational and spiritual community. We recognize and celebrate the diversity of our students’ lives: their different gifts, abilities, experiences, cultures, and ways of learning. The Seattle School faculty not only teach, but through their education, expertise, and life-experience, they also serve as mentors, encouragers, and colleagues in life-long learning.