PAIDEIA, Inc., contends that a client's primary need is to know and assert its own mission: its stated institutional purpose or reason for being. Only when an institution understands who it is, and whom it seeks to serve, can it successfully build long-term support and institutional growth.
We help our clients identify and articulate a succinct, specifically-stated mission by working with them to set goals, communicate those goals effectively, understand and fully develop their resources, and develop strategic short and long-term planning to realize their goals.
Our services in this area include:
Founding an institution
Defining mission and objectives
Program development
Founding an Institution
PAIDEIA offers specific, detailed counsel on a process that cannot be rushed into being: that is, the founding of a new school or other institution. Our detailed roadmap leads through progressive stages to a successful opening day—and the days that follow.
Over the years, PAIDEIA has counseled a number of visionary task forces intending to establish a school or other institution. They have not only listened to our counsel, but acted upon it—so that today we are proud to claim a part in the thriving of Oaks Christian School (Westlake Village, CA), Whitefield Academy (Mableton, GA), and The Brook Hill School (Bullard, TX), among others.
Defining Mission and Objectives
PAIDEIA regularly engages with boards and executive leadership to help them define or redefine an institution's purpose and reason-for-being, then set out to express in compelling and original terms: Why does this institution exist, and to what end?
In capsule form, this mission statement contains the seeds of objectives to be realized, both on a day-to-day basis and in the long view: an institution’s own vision for the future, if its mission has been adequately fulfilled.
Program Development
Since the majority of our clients are educational institutions, it is proper for us in most cases to refer to program development as curriculum development. Thus PAIDEIA seeks to assist the board and executive leadership of any school, college, university or seminary to decide upon the course of study that best serves the mission and vision of that institution—in particular, by setting that course of study in the framework of a biblical world-view.
For example, we work with a considerable number of elementary and secondary schools that are already committed to a curriculum that is both classical and Christian. Other schools we work with wish to introduce a college-preparatory curriculum that includes either the Advanced Placement Program or International Baccalaureate. Still others are dedicated to a specialized curriculum that serves learning differences. Overseas schools may need to combine a curriculum that meets the needs of its national students, while at the same time preparing international students for a homeland return to university.
The PAIDEIA team has the breadth of experience to serve all of these curricular needs.
Similarly, for any non-academic client, PAIDEIA offers counsel on how best to shape the intended services to meet the organization’s or institution's mission and vision.