A Strong Foundation

At Brearley, students learn to think for themselves and to challenge assumptions. From Kindergarten on, they relish the work of sifting the proliferation of information available to them in order to create new knowledge, and they rejoice in the life of the mind. Our curriculum, the collective product of a highly skilled faculty, is guided by the belief that preparation for the demands of the future is based on a strong foundation in the liberal arts disciplines. Small section sizes insure that students probe ideas daily—their own, their classmates’ or teachers’, or those of Charles Darwin, Zora Neale Hurston or Mohandas Gandhi, among others. An increasing choice of courses teaches lessons in independence, so that by the time a girl graduates she has assumed full ownership of the shape of her educational program.

Brearley also encourages each girl to consider her own learning style, a focus that starts in the Lower School with reading and writing strategies and continues with attention to how students complete homework in the Middle School. In the Upper School, as they begin to tailor their own course programs, girls take into account their personal academic strengths as well as their interests so that they can both continue to develop skills and exploit, with growing exuberance, those they have mastered. Academic excellence at Brearley is dynamic: it reflects the ongoing interaction of talented, spirited students and dedicated, thoughtful faculty who delight in the high level of intellectual work that all participate in together.