Welcome

It is a challenging time for parents and children. We parents want the best for our children, but aren’t sure what is best. While the world tells us that we must prepare them for the global economy, our instincts tell us that we must nurture their hearts and souls. The Calhoun School believes education can do both. Calhoun students develop their minds, hearts, bodies and spirits in a supportive environment that encourages inquiry, stimulates curiosity, and embraces creativity.

From the three-year-old program to Upper School, Calhoun is a community where "student-centered" learning is not empty rhetoric. Warm, joyful, open spaces abound. Art work is everywhere. Calhoun teachers are dedicated, talented, and love to teach. Attention to individual needs and involvement of each child’s family are central to the Calhoun tradition. At Calhoun academic rigor is not grim, for true learning is inherently flexible, individual, spontaneous, and thoroughly engaging. Standardized tests are one measure of a successful school, and Calhoun students achieve at a high level. But how do you measure imagination and compassion? How do you quantify creativity and a sense of justice? How do you sustain the insatiable curiosity with which all children are born? At Calhoun we believe that all of these things are essential ingredients of a quality education.

At Calhoun there is no conflict or contradiction between the aesthetic and the technological. Our technological resources are considerable, but we understand that technology is a tool, not an end in itself. Computers are used to discover other cultures, draft essays, do research, and to create art and music. At Calhoun there is no false distinction drawn between rich, experiential learning and traditional success. Many of our students have gone on to great success at the best colleges and universities, taking with them an unusual confidence, a highly developed sense of self, and a hearty lust for life and learning – along with a high degree of preparedness.
Children should laugh, study, invent, play sports and explore. Children should smell flowers, sing songs, hug and dream. They should read great literature and write intense poetry. They should design experiments, learn a new language, develop passion for social issues and ask endless questions. It sometimes seems as if the whole of America is lining up to cross over a fiber-optic bridge. At Calhoun your child will prepare to cross that bridge from a solid foundation, built on the rich earth of human experience.

Please visit and discover Calhoun for yourself. I look forward to seeing you then.

Also see:

Steve's Blog -- invites interactive dialogue on educational issues 
Viewpoint -- Steve Nelson's columns on educational issues
Progressive Education -- what it is and how it's practiced at Calhoun
Steve Nelson on WNPR -- live interview about education with Steve and other educators on Connecticut Public Radio [May 28, 2010]