While sometimes effective, traditional law enforcement methods applied to schools carry major negative side effects. These include a significant financial burden, a reduction of time for classroom instruction, and a decline in teacher and student morale. Metal detectors, security guards, surveillance cameras, locker checks, and body searches create a pervasive atmosphere of apprehension among faculty, staff, students, and parents. Invitational Education asserts that everybody and everything in and around schools adds to, or subtracts from, school safety. It centers on four guiding principles of respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality.
Education is a cooperative, collaborative activity where process is as important as product.
People possess relatively untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavor. Safe schools are best realized by creating and maintaining inviting places, policies, processes, and programs and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and others, personally and professionally. By centering itself on respect, trust, optimism, and intentionality. Invitational Education provides a common language of transformation and a consistent theory of practice. It expands the educative process by applying steady and continuous pressure from a number of points, much like a starfish conquers oysters.