Lower School: Kindergarten through Fifth Grade

‘I have always imagined paradise as a kind of library.’
—Jorge Luis Borges

In the Lower School, children build the foundation on which everything later rests. They learn to read, and then they read whole books. They practice their math facts until the facts are their own, and then use them on problems that take patience. They memorize poems and songs, study the history of California and the United States, and begin French or Spanish in Kindergarten.

Each grade has its own classroom teacher, who comes to know how every child in the room thinks. Specialist teachers in science, art, music, physical education, world language and Makers widen the day.

We ask young children to do real work because they are able to do it, and because they find it thrilling. A seven-year-old who has stood before classmates and explained an experiment has learned the science twice over, and has learned something about courage as well. Children here also learn the other half of an education: to wait and to listen to a classmate.