Send them forth with freedom and responsibility
Twelve years ago, the child set out on a journey at the foot of a soaring tower, climbing its long spiral staircase and glimpsing only fragments of the landscape below. Twelve years later, that child, now a young adult, stands at the top of that tower, marveling at the vast panorama of the world beyond.
Through this journey, the child has gathered in their backpack the resources and skills to navigate the world, and the capacity to exercise freedom with responsibility, autonomy and agency. The young adult is now ready to encounter what lies ahead, acting both in service of themselves, and the world.
“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.”
- Walt Whitman
This is the spirit and the essence with which we want our children to meet the world.
I care
What we care about remains at the core of our being. All our actions in the world are influenced, nurtured, and shaped by those cares. Knowing what we care about, being stirred by it, and being able to articulate it are important values and skills. In every classroom community, we want to nurture care for the self, the work, and ‘the other’. This extends to care for the school, the village in which it lies, the community, the environment, the non-human world, and beyond.
I can
An expression of ability, and a mood of confidence in one’s own competence. Trying, experimenting, failing, falling, picking up, learning, practicing, unlearning, learning again, and building expertise and mastery is part of the journey of building competence. Capabilities lie not just in the academic sphere, but in arts, music, theatre, sport, leadership, social skills, integrity, emotional intelligence, and much more. We believe in identifying each child’s innate gifts, nurturing and honing them, while building varying levels of capability in all that is needed for one to thrive.
I will
You can, but will you? The gap between the ideal world—that world we want to inhabit—and the one we currently live in, is not from a lack of possibility, but due to a deficit in will— both in the collective and the individual. Will is the vehicle which carries the spirit of ‘I care’ and ‘I can’ into deeds that can materialise into real change in the world. ‘I will’ is an expression of impulse for moral, ethical and affirmative action. We offer various opportunities for children to discover, fuel, and bring their impetus and initiative to life.
Who is this adolescent in front of us?
‘Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’
— Robert Frost
The child that took great delight in being at the center of the world, walked into adolescence, leaving the golden age of childhood behind. Entering high school, they begin a process of individuating, putting up a wall to the outside world as they travel into themselves, asking important questions:
Who am I?
Why am I here?
What is my relationship with the world?
Who are my people?
What is my place in this world?
Where do I go from here?
As they contemplate these significant questions and work through their evolving identity, they slowly build a wall around themselves to honour their inner process— often unaware of what they’re walling in and what they’re walling out.
With this picture of the adolescent, whose developmental task in this period is to birth a new identity, we strive to hold them with tenderness, respect, and dignity. Our task is simply to build a bridge. Over these five years, we accompany this young adult—allowing space for this unfolding, offering opportunities for them to participate in the world outside, expanding their ability to think, and helping them identify and truly own their gifts. These are the intricate ropes of the bridge-building process.
“Sometimes you put your walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”
— Teenager, Anonymous.
Our Teaching philosophy
Passion and Mastery in the Subject
As children progress from lower school to high school, they go from being introduced to various subjects to really building expertise in their chosen fields. Therefore, the teacher’s mastery and command over the subject becomes a crucial and indispensable part of the teaching philosophy. This is what allows the students to experience the subject in its full potency and magic, fostering in them a deep reverence for it, where both the student and subject can thrive. The teacher’s love and passion for their discipline, in turn, becomes an invitation for each student to fall in love with their subject.
All Teaching is Relational.
“Primary teachers teach children, high school teachers teach subjects.”
This common perspective, often echoed in education, narrows the possibilities of teaching young adults into a confined landscape. At Yellow Train, we believe that all teaching is relational. In the early years, the teacher-student relationship is the bed on which all learning, habits, beliefs, and attitudes are built. As students enter high school, the relevance and significance of this relationship does not diminish; rather, it transforms. Here, it is the subject itself that becomes the bridge between the teacher and student, a shared space where connection, dialogue, and discovery can unfold.
To foster this connection meaningfully, it is the task of the educator to study the consciousness of a developing adolescent—how their inner life and development impacts their mood, behaviour, learning, and simply how they show up everyday. This awareness and understanding informs the way we connect, work, and build relationships with the growing adolescent.
Selfhood of the Teacher
Who you are educates a child far more than what you teach. Adolescents are looking for a role model to emulate.
Your life experiences, your worldview, your beliefs and ideals, your perspectives, your work ethic, your integrity, your fears and shadows, how you met your subject, what motivates you, and all that has shaped you—these form the core of your selfhood. And you teach out of this selfhood.
Developing Core Qualities in the Student
We believe in approaching learning through various innovative methods and practices including differentiated, collaborative, experiential, interdisciplinary, and self-directed learning. The educator is tasked with building key learner traits in the adolescent—accountability, integrity, independence, autonomy, and a strong work ethic—enabling them to meet the world beyond with confidence and resilience.
Learning and Examination
We live in a context where high school years are often reduced to examination and grades. At Yellow Train, we believe that the phenomena of the examination is just one part of the learning process—not the whole. We approach education through a wider lens that values deep understanding, curiosity, and growth, alongside assessments. And when learning is approached in this manner, a high performance in examinations is almost inevitable.
