Vanguard High School is a community of learners committed to cultivating the resources necessary to become literate, articulate, analytical, reflective and empathetic citizens. Respect for self and others are the motivating forces toward achieving our goals of becoming socially productive, useful and responsible members of society. Vanguard High School is small and personalized in approach. Working with an intellectual focus, and helping students and staff to "use their minds well," our curriculum is developed stating the concepts, skills knowledge and goals of year-long thematic courses. We use the Habits of Minds to plan curriculum. These Habits of Minds are concerned with: How well does the student use evidence to support his/her opinions? Does the student see other points of view? Can the students make connections between different areas, courses, see the relevance of our studies, and what if we changed a factor in the discussion?