The Intellectual Virtues Academy of Long Beach

Our project will involve the systematic implementation of an "intellectual virtues educational model" in a new grades 6-12 public charter school in Long Beach, CA. According to this model, a crucial and overriding goal of education is the fostering of intellectual character virtues like wonder, curiosity, open-mindedness, fair-mindedness, creativity, and intellectual tenacity, honesty, and humility. While a concern with *moral* and *civic* character has long been of interest to educators and educational theorists, recent research in philosophy and related fields has drawn attention to the distinctively *epistemic* or *intellectual* dimension of personal character. This dimension is even more immediately and clearly relevant to education, for intellectual virtues just are the characater traits of an excellent thinker, inquirer, or student. Our project will draw on this research, including several outputs from the JTF-Sponsored "Intellectual Virtues and Education Project" (ID: 29274). The Intellectual Virtues Academy of Long Beach (hereafter IVA) will open (pending District approval) in the fall of 2013. The majority of the funding for the school will come from the State of California. We are requesting funding from the John Templeton Foundation (hereafter JTF) to support the implementation of IVA's distinctive and innovative educational model and to fortify its financial viability in its early years of operation. We are seeking funding for the following: (1) a Program Implementer/Principal position; (2) a part-time Program Administrator; (3) a part-time Development Officer; (4) an onsite professional assessment of IVA's implementation of its educational model by Harvard's Ron Ritchhart; and (5) a state-of-the art website and other marketing materials for IVA. Given the rigorous but highly personal nature of an intellectual virtues approach to education, our project stands to have an enduring impact on education in Southern California and beyond.