Social Milieu

Our legacy of civility and scholarship results from the management of a loving, consistent, and academically demanding environment.   Here, teenagers feel a sense of belonging and institutional ownership which is produced by the long term management of several variables.

Our self defense training program provides all teenagers with the benefits of martial arts combined with a broad curriculum in fitness and health.   In Gary Seabaugh's ISSHINRYU Self Defense Training students learn good lifestyle habits, respect for others and themselves, the psychological elements of self-control, and how to remain cool headed in all situations. Our students learn to work speed and heavy bags, how to box, grapple, and many other techniques of self-defense.

Thirty years of self defense training has produced an expectation from students that this is a school free from bullying and other disrespectful behaviors from peers.   Indeed, our teenagers form a tightly knit social unit soon after the school year begins.   The robust and physical activities which are found in Self-defense training provide a natural, safe, and appropriate outlet for EACH teenager's physical expressions.

Our incentive system provides a daily, material reminder of the rewards for success in a free market. Students who go to class on time, do what is asked of them, and refrain from disrupting others meet the deportment requirements set forth in our civility code.   When students meet this criterion they receive immediate short term and long term incentives that are based on individual and group performance.

The daily report, which is sent home for parents, lists the teenager's 6 classes and records the teen's performance across the four requirements of the deportment and civility code.

Their parents learn to make contingent those things the teens enjoy, based on their performance at school and home. One hundred percent of our parents manage reinforcing contingencies at home.   With this level of parental involvement, our entire population benefits from the success of each other as well as themselves.

In our university learning environment we do not have bells to cause teens to be punctual: punctuality is a skill that they readily acquire.   We do not have a dress code: we expect our students to be civil in their attire. We address each other by first name: we treat our students with affection and respect and thus it is returned.   We operate an open campus: students who meet the deportment requirement are allowed to leave campus for lunch with their parent's permission.