The Stone Independent Blog

“Appropriate discomfort is an inherent, necessary, and healthy component of growth. Problem-based learning encourages students to embrace this discomfort, recognizing it as a valuable aspect of growth that will serve them well in the future.”

“And much more importantly: every dollar you share with Stone goes directly to our students.  Your support funds our financial aid program, and if we hit our goal of $50,000.00 we plan on taking all of our students to Hersheypark this spring to celebrate. “

“This Friday, in support of our students and in support of our financial aid program, Dean of Students Alex Funnell and Head of School Mike Simpson are going to settle their long running feud — who is the fastest administrator at Stone — by racing across Lancaster during the Extra Give for our first annual Extraordinary Race. Every dollar we receive during the Extra Give affects the race, every dollar we receive goes directly to our students.”

“STEM Honors is a selective academic program at Stone: it is an invitational, year-long program designed to give our students opportunities to deeply develop skills in the sciences and which culminates in a public exhibition of process, learning, and research.”

“We believe that curiosity is the difference between achievement and accomplishment.  Curiosity fuels iteration and intellectual risk-taking, curiosity enables students to create unexpected breakthroughs and discoveries through exploration and through sustained practice.

“Stone was founded on exactly these key principles: that the future is unpredictable, that the only way to prepare students for unpredictability is to practice future-forward skills which will enable them to learn, adapt, and thrive in unpredictable ecosystems and contexts.”

There is no prescription nor purchased curriculum for what and how we teach. There are no step-by-step instructional guides or books. The collaborative work of our teaching team is what makes us who we are and allows us to show students the vast capacities they embody for highly sophisticated problem-solving. We practice and believe in an educational philosophy that we think is the best way to equip students for success in any future vocation, to use their voice for good, to engage life with empathy and ethicality as the road becomes more complex, to walk with a discerning and compassionate heart, and to solve the biggest economic, technical, environmental, and social problems that humans have ever faced.

“Embracing a mistake or an undesired outcome as a springboard for informed forward momentum is where failure finds its power – cultivating this as exploration and experimentation is where creativity finds its soul.  

Since creativity is a mindset that cannot easily be transferred through top-down instruction, students need to develop and practice regular skills which allow them to explore, with the understanding that there rarely is one “correct answer”, but instead a myriad of potential outcomes which each allow them to develop voice and agencyAnd all that is required to begin the process is curiosity. “

In 13 days, every new student and new faculty member will stand on stage at/about 9:00am and -- thanks to the Sorting Can -- learn what House they were...well, born to be in.

“One of the real joys of working in Lancaster City is the community of small shops and makers and entrepreneurs and artists and activists who each work with such care, who each are so willing to collaborate and share in the larger work of our city. “