Mission Statement
Carden of Tucson’s mission is to provide exceptional academic, physical, leadership, and social programs to enable each student to reach his or her full potential, and to prepare the students for success in their further educational endeavors.
School Vision
The Carden Vision is comprehensive. It focuses on a safe, fun, and intimate campus to which students willingly and enthusiastically attend, and about which parents feel secure and comfortable. It encompasses small classes that foster a family-type environment in which every student can grow commensurate with his ability. It includes a visionary administration that sets and maintains high academic standards for all students, and encourages continued professional growth of all staff members. Central to this vision is a faculty that loves children, enjoys teaching, and is committed to helping their students master the Carden, State, and National Curriculum Standards, as well as their own continued professional growth.
Curricular Philosophy
Dignity is the keynote of Carden School. Life is a joy, so should be learning, said Mae Carden, noted educator who founded the Carden Curriculum. School should equip each child to achieve the life triumphant. The three R’s are reason, respect, and responsibility. Carden seeks to develop students who are adjusted, capable, confident, eager, alert, courageous, generous, just, self-critical, compassionate, courteous, and happy. The fundamental cause of success in life and in school is not the youngsters’ IQ, but his or her SQ, the Stamina Quotient. The teacher aids each child to develop the stamina to achieve success. Emotional control through personal choice is a great lesson of life. Youngsters may know delay, but they do not need to know failure. Each child should achieve success. Some children progress rapidly. They must be well grounded in subject matter. They must not think that cursory reading is a substitute for thinking in depth. Some children require more time to learn. The teacher is the model for success in the classroom. A child should not find that the purpose of school is the collection of errors. The child will meet challenges in school, but with the teacher’s encouragement and direction, the youngster need not know defeat. Students develop an eagerness to learn and accept responsibility to learn rather than act as if they were bystanders. They are willing to become involved in the task and show the confidence and self-trust necessary to become self-reliant, independent thinkers. Each is developing an individuality with dignity, confidence, and respect.