Canton Intermediate School has formally adopted the Responsive Classroom philosophy. The staff is trained in this approach to teaching and learning. Each day, students and their teacher participate in a morning meeting. Classmates gather in a circle to great on another, to listen and respond to one another's news, to practice academic and social skills, and to look forward to the events in the day ahead. The guiding principles of responsive classroom include:

• The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.

• How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content go hand in hand.

• The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.

• There is a set of social skills children need in order to be successful academically and socially: cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control.

• Knowing the children we teach-individually, culturally, and developmentally, is as important as knowing the content we teach.

• Knowing the families of the children we teach and inviting their participation is essential to children's education.

• How adults at school work together is as important as individual competence: lasting change begins with the adult community.