SCHOOL VISION

To enrich academic excellence within a humanities context, the instructional program is supported by a required service component. In addition, the academic program is supported by an extra-curricular program, designed ideally to tap the talents and interests of each student and to bring to traditional learning situations other valences - creativity, participation, pleasure. The nature of the student body calls for a challenging program, which affects instructional offerings. All students study courses well beyond the requirements of a Regents-endorsed diploma and all seniors study college-credit courses at Queens College as well as participate in the Humanities Seminar

SCHOOL MISSION

The mission established for our specialized high school is to maintain a school of ethnically integrated, highly motivated students, who represent all parts of our diverse urban population. Our major educational priorities are to insure academic excellence in the humanities tradition, but accommodated to the needs of the twenty-first century; to incorporate into all aspects of school life respect and regard for people and ideas; and, to realize these priorities by emphasizing clear thinking, precision of language, and sensible decision-making. It is our expectation that a strong base in humanities study, bolstered by mathematics, science, and the appropriate integration of current technology, will equip students to tackle the ethical and intellectual questions of the next generation.

An instructional program of quality moves students beyond the conventional classroom. The core curriculum of humanities serves as a keystone for cultural, co-curricular, and extra-curricular activities that include a wide variety of competitions, trips, and service opportunities. Such an instructional program is designed not only to expand students' academic prowess, but to provide recreational pursuits, rendering services to others, and paths to career goals. The nature of our multicultural student body offers the resource for a curriculum of inclusion for all ethnic groups. Underlying all of our instruction is the concept embodied in the Ephebic Oath, which is the school's guiding principle - to leave our school and City greater than we found them. Basic to all that we teach students is to respect the civic virtues, by respecting and appreciating one another's uniqueness.

The mission and instructional philosophy at Townsend Harris are indivisible; and, they inform every aspect of school life.