Families often ask us: How do you prepare students for successful futures?
Our answer is simple—think beyond preparation.
The world is constantly changing.
And the future our children will know is one we can’t possibly predict.
Our students today need to be more than prepared for that unknown tomorrow—they need to understand how to influence it.
That’s why at Calhoun, our students learn to refine an all-encompassing and all-informing skill to ensure their success: adaptability.
OPEN to possibilities...
For your child’s first years with us, we offer two paths to the same destination. We want your child to grow up open to all their amazing possibilities—as a learner and as a human being. And we want your family to have meaningful options for these joyful and crucial early years.
That’s why we offer two tracks for children in preschool through 3rd grade: Open Inquiry and Montessori. The tracks differ in several aspects, but they share much in common: above all, shaping independent, self-aware, compassionate and proactive young learners and citizens.
from the beginning
Your choice of track comes down to how your child, as an individual, can learn best at this stage of their development. Their current and future teachers work closely with you to help you make your decision.
And as we observe and assess your child’s progress together, we remain open to switching tracks. In 4th grade, the tracks join together through a carefully planned transition. Regardless of your choice, once admitted, your child remains enrolled in Calhoun through 12th grade With no need to worry about applying to a new middle or high school, your child—and you—can focus on what’s most important: your child’s wondrous, ever-expanding learning life.
OPEN for a learner-centered approach
As your child moves through Lower School, whether in Open Inquiry or Montessori, our teachers guide them to learn how to learn.
At Calhoun, we know that every lesson becomes relevant when a child is encouraged to approach, investigate and engage with that lesson from their perspective and through their individual lens. At the same time, children study, play, create and explore with peers, developing vital communication and collaboration skills—and forming lasting friendships.
“I want learners who can fail, absorb strategies and try something new. Students who can sit in their struggle and learn from it rather than wallowing in initial confusion. These skills are applicable far outside the confines of a math classroom and are ones that can’t be downloaded in the app store.”
–Middle School math teacher
We preserve and pursue mystery
Throughout the transition from Lower into Middle School, our teachers embolden your child’s curiosity and creativity to help them investigate bigger questions more deeply. Our 4th grade program prepares your child to meet new academic milestones, while developing the skills and habits that will serve them in Middle School and beyond.
Building on the self-directed learning that’s a hallmark of Lower School, your child takes on increasingly abstract math concepts, more advanced reading and writing assignments and in-depth lab experiences. Your child grows increasingly confident and invested in their work—and excited to dive into what comes next.
and gradually OPEN the scope
DEMONSTRATION OF KNOWLEDGE
In order to gauge the efficacy of our students’ learning journeys, we ask them to demonstrate what they’ve learned frequently. But for each Calhoun student, how they demonstrate that knowledge can look very different.
By allowing students to show what they know in individual ways, we promote deeper investment in the process of acquiring that knowledge—and ensure students retain the skills to build upon that knowledge long after.
MIDDLE SCHOOL - 5TH THROUGH 8TH
We journey out of our comfort zones
and OPEN more paths to success
In Calhoun’s Middle School, your child is seen and known for who they are.
This shows up in teachers who go the extra mile to tailor their curriculum to your child’s interests. In conversations with advisors and close connections with teachers. In assemblies and collaborative projects where our community comes together.
In this time of great developmental change intellectual, emotional and social your middle schooler feels a sense of belonging that gives them the confidence and ability to be agents of their own academic journeys.
Our teachers continually find ways to guide your child beyond their comfort zones— intellectually and personally—and help them learn from their mistakes. Your child steps into Upper School as an adaptable and resilient questioner, problem solver, advocate and upstander, bridge-builder and global citizen.
We expand and deepen thinking
By the time Calhoun students reach our Upper School, they know how to engage intellectually and introspectively with new questions and content.
In the adolescent years, we enhance these abilities and extend their range, intellectually, geographically, and personally.
“The program really encourages students to hold themselves accountable. But I also learned how to reach out. A project really can’t be successful without consulting and listening to others.” –student
by OPENLY engaging beyond ourselves
Our Junior Workshop program invites every Calhoun eleventh grader to pursue an independent, in-depth project exploring a topic or question they care about.
Perhaps they will pursue a new passion, researching and reaching out to their community to deepen their knowledge. Or they might approach a lifelong interest through a more nuanced lens.
No matter what topic they choose, our students translate wonderings into work, work into action, and action into advocacy.
Students have utilized our cross-disciplinary Junior Workshop to:
• film and edit a documentary examining racism and mental illness in the criminal justice system.
• design and build a 3D printer that can be easily transported without compromising the apparatus’ build volume.
• redesign the architecture of our 81st Street building to make a more sustainable Calhoun.
We pursue equity through OPEN conversation
At Calhoun, we believe that diversity, equity and inclusion work—if we’re doing it well—should get harder and harder. We believe not only in teaching but in transcending tolerance, acceptance and appreciation, pushing our pedagogies to be actively anti-discriminatory. We know that an impactful education supports students’ identity development and scaffolds critical consciousness for all.
“ Being a truly progressive school means embracing risk. It means never really being completely satisfied with what we’re doing and continually thinking about the different lenses on this conversation.”
–administrator
“Calhoun’s approach to diversity is a large part of why we chose this school. I’m happy to hear it’s a continued work in progress to truly undertake these conversations and to immerse our children in an environment of authentic inclusivity.”
–parent
Our approach to inclusion
We begin by building cohesive connections between students and teachers. We open up our curriculum for new considerations, exposing students to a breadth of perspectives through academic content. We believe that everyone, in their first or fortieth year of teaching, has the potential and responsibility to improve, which is why we engage as a faculty in professional development that catalyzes and creates space for crucial conversations.
Most of all, we listen . To students, teachers and parents. To those we relate to and those whose life experiences diverge from our own. We support storytelling, seek new insights and connect across and through difference to craft a stronger community, together.
Through arts and athletics, we OPEN new understandings...
Seizing all that New York City has to offer, Calhoun arts and athletics programs empower students to uncover new understandings of the world around them. At Calhoun, we ground athletics offerings in four values: self-awareness, teamwork, empathy and resilience.
Student-athletes and coaches have access to state-of-the-art facilities on our campus, as well as in the city. As a NYCAL member, we offer:
• interscholastic varsity teams in volleyball, track, soccer, tennis, basketball, cross country, baseball, softball and table tennis.
• a 10,000 square foot athletics center and weight training room.
practice spaces at locations such as Riverside Park, Randall’s Island, Central Park and Van Cortlandt Park.
...and disrupt conventionality with creativity
Because we recognize that the artistic process fosters unique skills in our students—discovery, problem-solving, creative risk-taking—we integrate the arts across divisions and subjects.
By connecting art to oneself, one’s community and the world, Calhoun students not only share their creations with their school and city. They pave—and paint—new pathways and possibilities.
We offer electives and extracurricular opportunities in:
• jazz, orchestral and chamber music programs
• acting, directing, playwriting, tech design
• pottery
• sculpture
• painting printmaking
graphic design
• filmmaking
• photography
• woodshop
Whether discovering new ways to approach a math problem or deepening their understandings of history and art at a local museum, Calhoun students are questioners, inventors and innovators armed with compassion and flexibility.
The city of New York is an extension of their campus. And their engagement with it prepares them to leave Calhoun open to a world of unknowns and opportunities.
During
their time with us, students explore:
O
pen-ended academic opportunities that support interdisciplinary thinking
Throughout history, Calhoun educators have pushed student thinking forward through proven pedagogies that support students’ adaptability in an ever-changing world. With a 6:1 student-teacher ratio and an average class size of 12-15, each child receives close individual attention every day. Starting in Middle School, our open floor plan allows students and teachers to collaborate closely and engage with peers across grade levels, on interdisciplinary projects driven by students’ expanding awareness and curiosity.
Possibilities for understanding oneself and others through artistic and athletics expression
From our “endless backyard ”—Central Park—to our interscholastic varsity sports teams; from the world-class cultural institutions on our doorstep to our renowned arts and photography programs, Calhoun arts and athletics programs are process-oriented, equipping students with the self-awareness, empathy, resilience and teamwork skills needed to succeed on and off the field, stage or potter’s wheel.
Equity and inclusion through curricular content and community engagement
Faculty-wide professional development programs, cross-curricular collaboration, a commitment to critical conversation—these are just some of the practices that advance teachers’ and students’ understandings of diversity, equity and inclusion at Calhoun. Because we believe that equity work, when done properly, should get harder and harder, our students and teachers embrace complexity, opening their minds to perspectives that challenge or differ from their own.
Next steps for a life of learning, through Calhoun’s college counseling program
Despite being in one of the most highly competitive cities for college placement, we don’t view the college application process as bootcamp. At Calhoun, our process represents an opportunity to hone students’ decision-making skills and empower their choices in order to set them up for success far beyond the four years of university. No matter what path they choose, our college counselors’ highly individualized mentoring instills in students a self-worth and self-awareness that will help them succeed at and after college.
At Calhoun, “open” refers to our community as much as our floor plan.
To us, learning without walls means our students and teachers are...
OPEN for innovation.
OPEN for expansive ideas.
OPEN for mastery as a continuum.
OPEN for relationships as roots.
OPEN for whatever comes next.
To see what an education open to the future looks like in action, we invite you to schedule a tour or request more information at calhoun.org.
