Of all the questions you’ll face in the process of choosing a school for your child, this is perhaps the most vital: Is ECFS the right school for your family?
There’s no easy answer to that question, which is why we provide you with several opportunities during the admissions process to walk through our campuses, speak with our faculty and students, and talk directly with our admissions staff about your and your student’s goals.
We’ve put together a series of questions that might help you determine if ECFS is right for you.
Are you willing to grow with your child?
We challenge ourselves at every turn to choose the ethical path of radical empathy and humility, of curiosity and conviction. We encourage our students to ask How am I contributing? and Is this right?. We teach our students to consider questions of power and privilege. We lean into difficult conversations.
Just as we expect students to bring their full selves to school, so too do we expect them to take the lessons they learn into every corner of their lives. Everything that happens on campus is designed to be happening at home and out in the world. We see no separation between school and life.
As parents, you will engage in this learning, too. You will confront difficult questions alongside your child, and you will be asked to be curious and open — and occasionally to shift your thinking based on new information or new perspectives.
Are you satisfied with the world around us?
We are and always have been about raising student voices, listening to our young people, and creating an ever-adaptive curriculum and a safe and strong environment. We teach our students about civic engagement; we teach them how to act. We develop ethical intelligence and moral will, equipping people of every age to be good human beings, providing the challenges and the gifts so that our students — and our families — will go out into the world and change something for the better.
Are you okay taking a break every now and again?
We know the particular pressures of this city, of peers, of wanting to learn and absorb new information and experiences. We know the particular energies that only a four-year-old or a 14-year-old can possess. But we know just as well how to let that all go, how to teach our students to stop, play, and share joy. How to be healthy. How to care for ourselves as much as we care for others.
An ECFS student…
- embraces difference and is excited to explore the unknown
- strives to connect what they have learned with the rest of the world
- knows that asking the right questions can be just as powerful as coming up with the right answer
- thirsts for knowledge and seeks out challenges
- enjoys working individually and with others
- embraces new ideas and gladly steps outside their comfort zone
- is emotionally mature enough to handle the self-directed aspects of the curriculum
- isn’t afraid to fail publicly, then try again
- welcomes difficult questions and conversations