Our Philosophy

Big Picture Philadelphia has based its work on an overarching philosophy about how kids should learn and how schools should work:

• In general, Big Picture Philadelphia believes that learning should be fun, stimulating and directly relevant to the different interests and passions of each individual student.
• In contrast to the majority of schools today where students shuffle from one 50 minute class to another, we believe that school should provide more opportunities for learning outside of the classroom in real-world situations, in order to best prepare our youth for the life that awaits them after school.
• As an organization, we also believe in the potential of all youth and we set college as an option and reasonable expectation for all our students.
• Although BPP does believe that there is a place for tests, we do not believe that curricula should be predicated upon the need to pass a test. Instead, we believe that we should be teaching our youth the skills that they need to be able to excel in a post-secondary option of their choice and to be successful in a career, including being able to read, write, research, problem-solve and calculate.

In our experience, if a student is excited by a topic and finds it to be relevant and practical to his or her life, learning will happen naturally. Therefore, at Big Picture Philadelphia, we try to create this situation over and over again for each and every student, so that every youth that we touch becomes excited about learning and about one day becoming a productive member of society.

Click on the following links to learn more about some key components of our successful approach:

• TEACHER AS ADVISOR
• STUDENTS AT THE CENTER OF THEIR LEARNING
• LEARNING IN THE REAL WORLD
• EARLY INVOLVEMENT IN COLLEGE AND CAREER
• WHERE SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES INTERSECT