The ISAP class is designed as an introduction to the independent school decision process. The class serves as an information hub for students as they begin their journey towards independent school. We will break down the step-by-step process of applying to schools, and work on specific skills to help build student profiles. As the process goes forward and becomes more individualized, ISAP will serve as a checkpoint in the application process, and we will set aside time for individual application help.

This course aims to deliver four educational goods—capacity for personal autonomy, capacity for healthy personal relationships, capacity to treat others as equals, and capacity for personal fulfilment—and the four character strengths of interpersonal self-control, zest, gratitude, and social intelligence. Modules will include personal and social identity formation, self-awareness, self-management, emotional regulation and modulation, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, problem-solving skills to manage adversity, and the transition to high school. The instructor will use workshop-style classes to build students’ confidence that their voices and identities are valuable in all communities, to empower students to bring their full, authentic selves to all communities, and to equip students to utilize pro-social behaviors to advocate for themselves.

“The bees plunder the flowers here and there, but afterward they make of them honey, which is all theirs; it is no longer thyme or marjoram. Even so with the pieces borrowed from others; he will transform and blend them to make a work of his own, to wit, his judgment. His education, work, and study aim only at forming this.” - Michel De Montaigne, the Complete Works

This course will consist of two essential activities: 1) getting to know ourselves and 2) communicating what we find. We’ll encounter new things this summer: new texts, new literary styles, and new ways of encountering the world. We’ll also be challenged to reflect, critically, on what’s come before. Learning is a peculiar and intimate practice - we’re going to put it under the microscope, make it our own, and write about it (a lot)!