Conventional schools make teachers and textbooks into authorities. Students are discouraged from challenging their teachers or texts. In contrast, Cedarwood students may question any idea, any supposed fact, or any decision without fear of retribution. It is far more productive to check a software manual when you have a problem, for example, than to read the whole manual before using the software. Most important, Cedarwood's approach teaches personal responsibility.
Students know that they are each responsible for their own education.
Our students do not depend on someone else to tell them how to prepare them for life in the twenty-first century. Instead, they make and implement their own decisions and then experience the consequences. Thus our students experience the responsibility of real life while remaining in a caring and supportive environment. Visit the school and you will see some of the evidence. Cedarwood is full of unusually articulate, self-reliant, and mutually respectful young people.