Welcome to The Peace & Justice Academy
The Peace & Justice Academy is a new, innovative middle and high school, founded in Christian traditions but open to everyone.
We offer life lessons in social justice to complement a challenging academic core of college prep classes. We seek to take the problems of the world out of the philosophical realm and make them real. We teach life skills in the expectation that our graduates will leave with tools that will allow them to engage the real world and – most importantly – to change it.
The Peace & Justice Academy was founded in 2008 by two dedicated educators who, through their experience in more traditional forms of education, saw how undervalued the minds and hearts of tweens and teens were. So our teens study the intricacies of algebra and geometry, and fund microloans for people all over the globe with money they DO NOT get from their parents. They not only perform community service, but learn the causes and cures of societal ills - and learn to empathize with those they serve. They study the lives of well-known and little-know peacemakers, and learn restorative justice techniques to use themselves. They ponder the ins and outs of the US Constitution, and write their own Respect Agreement governing their actions towards their classmates and teachers. They also do their homework at school in an extended day, thus ending the homework war.
We hope that you are intrigued enough to find out more about the kind of education we offer at The Peace & Justice Academy. There’s a lot of information here on our website, but we welcome your phone calls and emails.
Peace be with you.
Randy Christopher and Kimberly Medendorp, Co-Executive Directors
Currently, we have students enrolled in the sixth through tenth grade. We will add enrollment for the eleventh grade in fall 2012.
Please look around and sign up for regular updates.
A Message to Parents
If you’re like us, your first concern is probably about academics and “academic rigor.” Perhaps you skipped to the “Academics” tab before coming here. As we continue to develop and fine tune our Course of Study, please know that we absolutely share this focus. We want all of our students to graduate high school prepared to go on to college. And we will continue to hire the best qualified, most experienced teachers available.
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A Message to Students
Almost anything that happens, anywhere on the planet, is up on the Internet. Almost immediately. In this way, the world grows smaller all the time.
And as the world shrinks, its problems grow larger and more complex.
In addition to the problems that teenagers have always faced, like making friends and what to wear, you will also face challenges your parents never imagined.
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Notice of Nondiscriminatory Policy as to Students
The Peace & Justice Academy admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, religious affiliation, or sexual orientation in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship, and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.