We Might Be in a New Building, But Our Values Are the Same!

Moving into a new place can certainly change us. Where we are often can redefine us, and make us into something we never intended to be. For staff and students at Discovery High School that has been a concern from the start when talk began about the move to our new building located in the Thornton Educational Center. Place does have the ability to transform us, and sometimes those transformations aren't what we intend, but with Discovery, we do intend to hold tight to those values that make us unique, in spite of new surroundings and a larger student body.

Discovery High School's core values and school norms are:

• We believe that ethics, knowledge of what's appropriate as well as right or wrong, is best internalized rather than written down as a "code of conduct" or ethics. We believe our students and staff "do the right thing because it's the right thing to do."
• We believe in listening to what others have to say, as manifested in our school norm entitled "EF Hutton." When anyone speaks and has something to contribute, we listen.
• We believe we all have a responsibility to "Keep the World Beautiful." We take it as our personal responsibility to keep our immediate world clean.
• We believe in the Pepsi Philosophy, which means take care of the business of learning and doing first, then give ourselves permission to relax.
• We believe it is not moral or ethical to talk about people. Productive and constructive conversation happens about ideas of substance. We don't believe in engaging and talk about people. This is known as our "Weak Mind Rule."
• Finally, we believe all students must act with the intention that they will engage in their best behavior at all times. This is known as our Rule of Angels.

As we move into this school year, our conversations with our students quite often revolve around living these values and norms. In that sense, place has not affected what we as Discovery High School believe as important. Our intention as a school community is remain true to who we are no matter where we are.