"The 'thinking society' of the twenty-first century can no longer be content with graduates trained to take in and recycle information handed out by teachers and other authority figures. Today's students must be taught to think for themselves and to generate new information. But you cannot say: 'We will lecture to you about how to be creative, and then we will measure your creativity with this multiple-choice test.' We need a whole new approach to designing and running schools." (Smart Schools, Smart Kids: Why Do Some Schools Work? by Edward B. Fiske)

Merriam's philosophical foundations are what make Merriam a special school. A great deal of deliberation, discussion, and debate went into crafting these foundations, which are explained below and put into action every school day:

• A Little History
• Our Mission and Vision Statements
• Our Core Values
• The Structures and Strategies we use for implementation
• Decision Making at Merriam

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