CAT's youth development programs engage students in meaningful academic and social interactions with teachers, parents, and peers toward the goal of becoming productive, imaginative, and healthy citizens. Rather than memorizing a laundry list of facts, regurgitating information for tests, and working to please the teacher, students should analyze academic material, prove they understand it by using what they've learned, and work at full capacity because they want and need to know about their world. Only when instruction becomes fragmented, forced, and meaningless do children resist learning. In order to transform the school experience for students, CAT works to change the role of the teacher from a provider of information to a leader in the community and the classroom, who challenges students to engage in rigorous examinations of academic material. Most teachers see their job as getting students to do the work .
Effective teachers take on the difficult and complex task of making schoolwork itself important.
In order to do this teachers must take children seriously , and genuinely listen as students express their ideas, experiences, and interests. Provide consistent and specific feedback to enable each child to improve. Develop goals and expectations for and with children so that they do not approach learning in a haphazard fashion. Stretch their intellectual limits every day as they master rigorous academic material. Center for Artistry in Teaching's work focuses on the long-term needs of children and society.