The Mt. Penn Primary and Elementary Center Educational Program of the Antietam School District should provide for the optimal development of the individual pupil’s potential for both their personal well-being and their responsibility toward society. We are guided by the following beliefs:

The nature of our school program should be determined by the needs, interests, and abilities of the pupil as a member of diverse social groups. It must be flexible and within the student’s scope in order to guide him into an awareness that knowledge and
those attitudes and abilities most useful are acquired in the process of living daily a challenging, dynamic, and satisfying life. Our curriculum must also provide each child with the opportunity to master the fundamental knowledge and skills which will enable him to function as a productive member of our society.

Our school is an integral and essential part of the community in which a mutually cooperative attitude toward all activities is desirable.

Our teaching is a conscious directing of learning based upon sound educational principles and ideals as well as a sincere desire to share with youth in a positive reciprocal development. This development rests upon both the faculty’s obligation to offer the student’s reciprocal obligation to be an active and responsible participant in these learning experiences.

Our staff is committed to a child-centered environment which enhances each student’s self-esteem included with their academic achievement.

Our students are recognized and regarded as individuals with needs both like and unlike other students. Each member of the professional staff strives to become cognizant of these needs and then to provide opportunities for their fulfillment.
                                                             
There is no educational substitute for good teachers. The philosophy of the teaching staff is based upon the following attitudes:

• Flexible in our planning of a curriculum based on the knowledge that every child learns through meaningful experiences;
• Tolerant of children as individuals, since every child is the product of his own unique past experiences.
• Consistent in our praise for we know that children learn best through successful experience.
• Realistic in our expectations concerning achievement because we realize that classes and groups are comprised of individuals who learn and achieve at individual rates and levels.
• Positive in our outlook because we recognize that achievement is within the realm of each child.