Pillars of Excellence

Self Reliance

At Galloway, we develop self-reliant students capable of completing assigned tasks in an independent, resourceful and self-sufficient manner. We believe students who are independent and self-reliant typically survive and function better in society than those who are dependent on others for happiness and sustainability. Taking control of basic tasks and life skills will not only help our students stay in control of their own lives, but will ultimately contribute to making them a happier individual.

Compassion & Empathy

Galloway students learn about showing compassion and empathy during their earliest years in school. Compassion is an emotional response and attitude towards others that is deeply empathetic. It enables us to connect to human suffering with care and understanding, acting in ways that brings comfort to those around us. Compassion causes us to remain charitable, even if others behave negatively. Research shows that compassion plays a key role in helping children develop into engaged, caring, and optimistic adults. A Galloway student learns compassion and empathy through…

• Volunteering

• Service Learning Projects

• Performing random acts of kindness

• Listening to stories involving compassion

• Developing an awareness of other points of view

• Studying historical figures who were champions for causes that helped the world to be a better place

• Discussions of bullying and the adverse effects of those individuals on the receiving end.

Galloway campus life is immersed in opportunities to practice compassion and empathy throughout each day. These opportunities to teach and reinforce compassion will, over time, result in a student becoming a happy, caring individual with a moral compass that directs them to do the right thing —because it’s the right thing to do.

Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

Today’s citizens must be active critical thinkers if they are to compare evidence, evaluate competing claims, and make sensible decisions. A Galloway student is taught to think critically in varied situations using multiple strategies to achieve optimum solutions to problems. We teach our students to…

• Reason effectively using various types of reasoning (inductive, deductive, etc.) as appropriate to the situation

• Use systems thinking to analyze how parts of a whole interact with each other to produce overall outcomes in complex systems

• Make judgments and decisions analyzing and evaluating evidence, making arguments, claims and defending beliefs, analyzing and evaluating major alternative points of view, synthesizing and making connections between information and arguments, and interpreting information and drawing conclusions based on best analysis, reflecting critically on learning experiences.

• Solve problems in conventional and innovative ways. We want our students to be able to identify various points of view that lead to better solutions.

Creativity & Innovation

In today’s world of global competition and task automation, innovative capacity and a creative spirit are fast becoming requirements for personal and professional success. If students leave school without knowing how to continuously create and innovate, they will be under-prepared for the challenges of society and the workforce. Galloway students are taught to create and invent when they…

• Use a wide range of idea creation techniques (such as brainstorming)

• Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts)

• Elaborate, refine, analyze, and evaluate original ideas to improve and maximize creative efforts

• Develop, implement, and communicate new ideas to others effectively

• Are open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives

• incorporate group input and feedback into the work

• Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understanding the real world limits to adopting new ideas

• View failure as an opportunity to learn; understand that creativity and innovation are part of a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes

• Act on creative ideas to make a tangible and useful contribution to the field in which the innovation will occur

Collaboration & Communication

Collaboration has been accepted as a skill that’s essential to achieve meaningful and effective results. In the past decade, however, it has become increasingly clear that collaboration is not only important but necessary for students and employees, due to globalization and the rise of technology. Galloway students develop collaboration and communications skills when they…

• Work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams

• Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal

• Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member

• Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written, and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts

• Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes, and intentions

• Use communication for a range of purposes (e.g. to inform, instruct, motivate, and persuade)

• Use multiple media and technologies, and know how to assess impact and effectiveness

• Communicate effectively in diverse environments (including multilingual and multicultural)

Civility

The foundational virtue of civility is behavior that recognizes the humanity of others, allowing us to live peacefully together in neighborhoods and communities. The psychological elements of civility include awareness, self-control, empathy, and respect. If we believe that all human beings “are created equal” and have worth, then civility is an obligation to act in ways that honor that belief. It requires us to treat others with decency, regardless of our differences. It demands restraint and an ability to put the interests of the common good above self-interests. Civility is, at its core, the glue that holds a society together.

Civility requires respectful engagement: a willingness to consider other views and place them in the framework of history, philosophy, and life experiences. Galloway students learn civility through…

• Using good manners

• Treating others the way they want to be treated

• Discussing and practicing good character virtues

• Being open to different types of people and ideas

• Apologizing when they have wronged others

• Resolving conflicts peacefully and respectfully

• Listening to another point of view that differs from their own

• Sharing

• Taking turns

• Following rules and procedures

• Exercising self-restraint for using offensive language or acting inappropriately when becoming angry, hurt or disappointed

• Debating issues with tolerance for differing views and respecting ground rules