Our mission at the MacDuffie Upper School is to prepare students for college by helping them build knowledge and skills that will allow for success in any institution of higher learning. Even more importantly, however, we seek to foster in our students a life-long love of learning, and intellectual and ethical habits of mind befitting an educated person in modern society. At a time when many people’s understanding of college-preparatory education seems to consist of various ways of “gaming” the system, or building a transcript with the sole goal of pleasing the eye of the admissions officer, we at MacDuffie see things differently. Certainly, we are mindful of the increasingly competitive college application process and its demands. Nevertheless, we take the “old-fashioned” view that our duty is to give our students a solid intellectual, moral, and skill basis for success in college and later in life, not to create the illusion of having given one. The result of this philosophy is an Upper School curriculum that is well balanced, challenging, and flexible in meeting each student’s individual needs and talents.

In the Upper School, students will continue to benefit from the unique advantages MacDuffie can provide as a small, caring, and intimate community of learning. The support given to ninth-graders to ease the often-difficult transition to Upper School makes that daunting step less so. Throughout Upper School, the students’ educational experience is structured around the acquisition and development of skills they will find absolutely essential for success in college, including:

• Problem-solving when faced with complex questions.
• Applying critical thinking when navigating today’s crowded information landscape.
• Understanding the essence of the scientific method.
• Finding one’s voice when expressing the results of one’s intellectual and artistic inquiry.

The support and caring that will allow students to succeed in this process continues throughout their Upper School career, while giving room for a greater level of independence in the higher grades, as is appropriate for the growth of effective, self-directed learners. All this is not only challenging and intellectually stimulating: it is also fun, with a great deal of the learning occurring outside the classroom, on field trips and in interactions with other students from a multitude of cultural backgrounds and perspectives. The Upper School curriculum as a whole employs a wide variety of educational approaches befitting a school at which diversity – whether of cultures, viewpoints, or interests – is valued very highly.

We are committed to providing a haven of learning in which all of our students can feel safe, supported, and challenged: safe in their quest to grow as individuals, supported in their exploration of exhilarating new avenues of learning they never knew existed, challenged to find in themselves new interests and talents they never expected. Throughout it all, they will be valued as members of a community of true diversity and inclusiveness. I welcome you to see all this for yourself.

Mika Saarela
Head of Upper School