Pros
For the most part the faculty and staff were very kind. Also, the students were incredibly smart and interesting to work with. Getting to interact with students was the best part of the gig.
Cons
If you disagree with any of the ideologies behind Great Hearts' mission, you're going to have a bad time. If you truly value anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion, you're going to have a bad time. The organization may say that they value these things but their educational philosophy (which they prioritize over everything) is at odds with that. I also really could not get behind their disciplinary tactics. Instead of utilizing restorative justice to get to the root of behavioral problems and try to tackle them there, they just slapped a disciplinary infraction on practically everything down to wearing the wrong type of uniform socks. Great Hearts is fine for a very specific (read: conservative) subset of the population, I guess. But the ideals they are clinging to are extremely outdated and unfortunately a huge part of the reason why I had to leave my job. As a non-teaching staff member, older students were comfortable sharing information about their experiences with me and it seemed that they felt stifled. While Great Hearts may prepare them well academically for college courses (to an extent...), I don't believe that the environment prepares them well for the diverse experiences and challenges that they are going to face in the real world after graduation.
