Integral Education begins with the inborn qualities of each child: eyes big with wonder; boundless curiosity; small hands extended in trust to people and the world; and a profound need for activity, self-expression, courage, laughter, and love.

Integral education prizes these qualities. They are the first expression of the divine spark at the center of each child’s being. A free progress system honors that spark by encouraging each child to excel in areas where he or she shows the inner urge to learn. A balanced curriculum in the humanities, arts, and sciences offers many options for these qualities to grow and take shape. A unique system of assessment involves the student’s own self reflection and the evaluation of his or her peers as well as the appraisal of teachers and parents.

Our mission is to create a beautiful and engaging educational environment where children can become aware of themselves and grow into conscious, creative and responsible individuals, participants in society, and contributors to the community of the future. Everything at the school aims to help the children:

• discover their unique and special aim in life
• experience the joy of learning for its own sake
• embody integrity, harmony, and beauty in every aspect of their lives.

The aim of education as followed at our Rainbow Kids Integral School is, therefore, not to simply to prepare the individual student to "succeed" in life and society but to embrace and exceed this purpose by increasing his or her perfectibility to the utmost.

1. The Integral classroom is a small classroom with a 12 to 1 or better teacher/student ratio. Each teacher is tasked with having a deep understanding of every student in order to encourage each student’s own capabilities and uniqueness. In essence, an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) is developed for each student, with the teacher, the student, and the parents all contributing to this plan’s development. This approach allows for students to learn at their mental and emotional development level, rather than being forced to match the general common denominator level of their peers.

2. Focus is on the educational process and not the product. Instead of focusing on exam results or degrees earned, the emphasis is on how students learn and their personal development. Students learn the art of critical thinking through observation and analysis. They learn the joy of discovery and develop a lifelong curiosity and desire to learn. They become forever students of life. Teachers are guides who facilitate the process of self-discovery. Teachers ask open-ended questions which help the children to think outside the box. Instead of rote memorization the focus is on gathering and processing information in order to learn how to learn. This is often accomplished through hands on experiences, projects, and field trips where children are allowed to become very familiar with what they are learning. The curriculum incorporates social studies, reading, language arts, mathematics, life sciences and the arts, including music, dance, drama and visual arts. Learning by doing means children build, cook, care for animals, paint, sing, learn to play instruments, garden, use math manipulatives, learn other languages, and experience different cultures. The net result is a student who has wisdom with his or her knowledge.

3. The school has academic standards and expects results that meets or exceeds those of comparable academic institutions. Each grade level will have what is called a "minimum common syllabus" incorporating the essentials of what is normally accomplished at other academic institutions, but leaving out some of the unnecessary repetition and irrelevant studies sometimes found at those institutions that can lead to disinterest. Because of the process of learning through the Integral Education methodology, as well as small class sizes and the individual attention given to each student, this minimum syllabus is generally easily and comfortably met during the year and the children are able to progress on to creating an individual syllabus for themselves, incorporating studies that the students choose themselves (with the teacher’s guidance). Integral Education recognizes that interest is the basis for concentration, and that, by allowing the children to explore their own unique interests, their concentration, as well as their learning, increases significantly.

4. A non-competitive environment encourages questioning and intellectual risk taking. In fact, in an environment where children are not afraid to make mistakes it is often found that the greatest learning and understanding takes place through trial and error.

5. Integral education means that the children are being educated in a way that integrates the modern aim of world knowledge with the ancient aim of self-knowledge. Their education in self-knowledge will allow students to truly discover who they are and to know their inner spiritual beings, as well as to help them to discover their life purpose. At the same time they will also be developing world knowledge by developing their mental, emotional, and physical capacities and skills, which prepare them to interact with the world around them in creative and meaningful ways. This method of developing the whole being allows children to learn not only what are considered traditional academics, but also to learn to be responsible for their own happiness and emotions. They learn how to overcome moods, develop conflict resolution skills and the art of friendship, as well as empathy and team building skills. Integral children will develop self esteem, independent responses, a relatedness to others, a sense of identity, the ability to think, solve problems, make judgments, to reason, and to acquire and organize information.

In summary, the children are learning not only how to get along in the world materially, but also how to become resilient, happy people with a solid inner strength.