In a world that’s becoming increasingly complex, our children’s success will depend on their ability to synthesize many disparate facts into a coherent — and actionable — picture of reality. To cultivate this crucial skill, all our classes help students draw their own conclusions from a wide range of evidence and then come to terms with the real-world consequences of those conclusions. Instead of just cramming students’ heads with information, we help young people understand themselves and their universe so that they can respond effectively to both.

To accomplish this goal, we’ve learned, intellectual understanding is unfortunately not enough. While new ideas can be dazzling, we’ve seen that they often remain impotent abstractions until they seep into the marrow of lived experience. With this in mind, we’ve designed every class to include an experiential component that helps students incorporate their new insights into their lives. Using a combination of group debates, introspective journaling, imaginative exploration, and creative self-expression, we give our students the tools they need to embody science’s emerging wisdom.