A Meaningful Middle School

Raising the Bar of Success

What is the goal of Middle School?

MWS graduates are young people who can identify their own unique gifts and can competently and thoughtfully bring them to the world.

How do we get there?

MWS is unique in the way it prepares the whole child: Head, Heart, and Hands.

Head - Rigorous Academics

7th graders find the golden mean inside a pentagon and discover the Fibonacci sequence spiraling through a pinecone. At every stage, academic knowledge is built from experience first and abstraction second, so that by the time a student encounters a formula, a rule, or a thesis, she already understands what it means in the real world. In this way, what we cultivate is comprehension — not just the ability to recall information, but the capacity to understand and “own” information from one’s personal felt experience. This is how information turns into insight and can be held for a lifetime.

Heart - Emotional Intelligence

At MWS, we recognize that children are not only thinkers — they are doers, feelers, meaning-makers, and the sacred holders of the future. We believe every student contains multitudes of potential and emotional depth. With this in mind, we cultivate reverence, wonder, and moral imagination as essential human capacities. Reverence is the capacity to pause, reflect, and give value to one’s experience. Wonder is the capacity to be moved. Moral imagination is the capacity to act from something deeper than self-interest.

Hands - Practical Skill-Building

What we cultivate through the hands is will — the capacity to plan something difficult and see it through, to meet resistance with persistence, and to bring an idea from imagination into physical reality. Will is not a personality trait; it is a practiced capacity. And in a world that offers endless distraction and instant gratification, it may be the most important capacity we develop.

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Our Research-Backed Approach

Neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Center for Healthy Minds have identified four pillars of well-being — awareness, connection, insight, and purpose — and found that each one is skill that can be strengthened with practice. See how our Middle School has been teaching these skills for over 50 years.

A group of people, including children and adults, gathered outdoors on a grassy trail, listening to an older man with a paper in hand, possibly leading a nature walk or educational activity on a hillside with trees and cloudy sky in the background.

Awareness

MWS students master analogue tools before digital ones — mental math, handwriting, hand tools, library research — and a two-hour daily main lesson asks for the kind of sustained attention screens erode. Outcome: Excellence

Research by developmental cognitive neuroscience Adele Diamond shows that focusing exclusively on training cognitive skills is less efficient and ultimately less successful than also addressing emotional, social, spiritual, and physical needs, and she specifically investigates the roles of storytelling, dance, music, physical activity, and mindfulness in improving executive functions and academic and mental health outcomes.

Five people on a snowy ski slope, wearing helmets and ski gear, standing together with a ski lift and snow-covered mountains in the background.

Connection

A class teacher who stays with the same group for years. An 8th Grade/1st Grade Buddy System in which our oldest students mentor our youngest, weekly. Outcome: Belonging

Research from the the Harvard Study of Adult Development states that the quality of relationships is the single strongest predictor of health and happiness in later life, outpacing wealth, fame, IQ, and even cholesterol!

Students sitting at desks in a classroom, writing on papers, with a window in the background and a wall clock.

Insight

In 7th grade, a creative writing block on wish, wonder, and surprise gives students language for an emotional life that is powerful and largely unexamined. Outcome: Self-Knowledge

James Pennebaker's forty years of research at UT Austin found that writing about one's inner life carries measurable benefit — not from venting, but from the work of shaping experience into words. Our seventh graders spend a full block doing exactly that, learning to name an emotional life that is powerful and, at thirteen, largely unexamined.

A woman standing on a black stage speaks to an audience of children and adults seated in chairs, with display boards and posters behind her, in an indoor setting.

Purpose

The Grade 8 independent research project: choose a subject, pursue it deeply, present it publicly. Outcome: Maturity

Research from William Damon, Professor of Education at Stanford and director of its Center on Adolescence, found that only about one in five young people are thriving with a clear sense of purpose, while roughly one in four remain rudderless. Purpose, meanwhile, tracks with academic achievement, resilience, and psychological and physical health across the lifespan.

A boy in a blue shirt standing in a classroom, reading from a paper, with a colorful cloth draped over a table during a presentation or class activity.

A Human Approach to Tech

Technology and Digital Literacy are thoughtfully incorporated into the middle school curriculum. In addition to developing keyboarding proficiency, students receive explicit instruction in online research skills for use in research projects in 7th and 8th grades. Lessons emphasize critical evaluation of sources and appropriate use of technology in academic work. Learn more about our school’s thoughtful and age-appropriate approach to technology.

An older man with a white beard, wearing a beige cap and sunglasses on his head, shows something in a container to a young boy with short light brown hair wearing a green Columbia jacket. They are outdoors, surrounded by green foliage.

Stewardship of the Earth

Outdoor and Environmental Education are an integral aspect of middle school program. Environmental Education is focused on stewardship of our beautiful 10-acre campus and developing an understanding of the environmental impacts of our water, waste, and recycling systems. Students take a series of memorable class trips to locations around California, as well as a capstone trip in the 8th grade year. Read about a recent 7th grade trip to the Shasta Wilderness.

A classroom with students sitting at desks, listening to a teacher at the blackboard, which has colorful chalk drawings of a plant, mushroom, and celestial objects. The classroom has large windows and educational posters.

Strong in STEM

In our middle school classrooms, science instruction begins with observation, using what is known as a phenomenological approach. In a phenomenological approach, students aren’t introduced to scientific principles through lectures and reading. Instead, a lesson begins with experimentation, observation, and hypothesis—teaching students to think like scientists do. Learn more about our approach to science instruction.

Three people on a boat, with the man in the center pointing forward, the woman on the left and the man on the right holding the ship's wheel.

Extraordinary Teachers

At the heart of the middle school program is our dedicated middle school faculty, who bring experience, depth, and genuine care to their teaching. Together, we are committed to providing a curriculum that challenges the intellect, nurtures the emotional life, and supports the development of capable, creative, and socially conscious individuals. Our goal is to help these students meet this ever-shifting world with confidence, adaptability, and a strong sense of inner purpose. Meet the team!

A choir of young women and men singing on stage, led by a female conductor with curly blonde hair, in a theater or auditorium.
Five children with bicycles standing on a dirt trail on a hilltop. They are wearing helmets and are giving thumbs up. The background features lush green trees, a body of water, and distant hills under a clear blue sky.
A young man dressed as a king with a cape and crown, holding a paper crown, standing in a dark room illuminated by blue light.
Young man working with wood in a woodworking shop, wearing a dark short sleeve shirt, with a wooden ceiling and shelves filled with woodworking supplies in the background.
A young woman with long brown hair presents at a school event, standing in front of display boards with photos and projects. The event appears to be about acrylic painting, with a painting of a rainbow and mountains on an easel nearby. The audience is seated and listening.
Group of children and adults holding bouquets of colorful flowers outside against a beige wall.
Children playing soccer on a field with goalpost, surrounded by green trees and bushes.
A group of young musicians playing cellos during a concert performance, dressed in white shirts, on a stage with dark background and green curtains.
Curriculum Overview

“These relationships will last forever if you nurture them. You will make friends in high school, college, and beyond, but your MWS classmates will forever be sacred, their loyalty and love for you will always there. Keep it with you.”

— Jake Pearl, Class of 2005, speaking at the 2025 graduation