Grazda Center Philosophy

GRAZDA CENTER works to help all educators and students create community and a sense of belonging, and to amplify all voices in a learning environment where everyone is seen, heard, and respected.

GRAZDA CENTER provides specific, research-based learning opportunities that can be implemented for all ages and in all educational settings, K-12. With a better understanding of current brain research and trauma-aware best practices, teachers can integrate the ideas into daily instruction in a way that maximizes engagement and authentic learning.

GRAZDA CENTER’s work addresses root causes of educational challenges by providing instruction in unique projects and powerful literacy practices that help students gain a sense of self, connect with others, and enjoy learning!

Here are two quotes that inspire this work.

In the words of Gwen Ifill, PBS Journalist and Moderator:
“Whose stories can you tell? Whose voices are not being heard? Who gets to decide which stories and voices get ignored? And what are you willing to do about it?”

In the words of educator and author Howard Gardner:
“I crave human beings who understand the world, who gain sustenance from such understanding, and who want – ardently, perennially – to alter it for the better. Such citizens can only come into existence if students learn to understand the world as it has been portrayed by those who have studied it most carefully and lived in it most thoughtfully; if they become familiar with the range – the summits, the valleys, the straight and meandering paths – of what other humans have achieved; and if they learn always to monitor their own lives in terms of human possibilities, including ones that have not been anticipated before.”