Mission / Beliefs

Our Mission

The Lab School of Washington Day School exists to educate intelligent, often gifted, children with moderate to severe learning disabilities, so they can return to the mainstream as soon as possible and become productive citizens. The goals of the institution are to:

  • provide a rigorous quality education for a lifetime of learning;
  • provide intensive remediation and teaching of strategies;
  • employ all the art forms as central to the educative process and treat the arts as scholarly pursuits;
  • bring multi-sensory and experiential learning into each classroom;
  • provide as many mainstream school experiences as possible structured to best facilitate learning;
  • support and educate parents in regard to school and home issues;
  • engage in research to facilitate excellent instruction
  • incorporate the latest technology into all Lab School programs;
  • keep staff highly challenged, in touch with brain research and its implications for teaching, designing new approaches to stay on the cutting edge of the field;
  • disseminate through workshops, lectures and seminars the result of its programs to others, including public and private schools that serve students who learn in both traditional and non-traditional ways;
  • replicate The Lab School model.

 

Our Beliefs

We believe that:

  • all children can learn and it is our responsibility to celebrate their unique gifts;
  • schools need to provide a safe, secure and nurturing environment in which the children can learn;
  • schools must engender respect for the individual and prize diversity;
  • the most appropriate education for children with learning disabilities combines multi-sensory instruction, immersion in the arts and learning by doing (experiential learning);
  • the arts provide an invaluable and at times the only effective vehicle for organizing the learning process for students with learning disabilities;
  • an enthusiastic and creative staff is essential to the success of every student;
  • innovative and non-traditional teaching methods as part of a rigorous instructional model are to be encouraged;
  • students with learning disabilities need highly individual and structured experiences;
  • kindness, compassion and perseverance are essential to helping students be successful in learning and life;
  • there is power in positive reinforcement;
  • schools should foster positive self-concept in students;
  • successes, grand or small, should be celebrated on a day-to-day basis;
  • organization and social skills are key components of special education;
  • all students should be able to articulate their strengths, weaknesses and learning styles that will lead to self-advocacy.