From the Head of School
Middlesex is an independent secondary school for students in grades 9-12, and our mission, captured in the words of our founder Frederick Winsor, is “to find the promise” in each of our students. As one of our senior faculty members elaborates, We believe that a small, intimate, and transparently honest community best fosters the development of an ethical person, a person who will view the opportunities gained from an elite education as opportunities to benefit larger communities and, with time, the world at large.
Whether boarding or day, Middlesex students undertake this process of self-discovery and growth as members of a residential school community distinguished by its intimacy and intensity, as students and faculty members come together from around the country and around the world to live and work and learn together.
The principal benefit of living and working together is that learning occurs throughout the day and in many different venues. Our academic curriculum is rich and challenging, and our faculty members aspire to nothing short of instigating inspirational intellectual experiences for their students. Outside of the classrooms, our co-curricular programs in athletics and arts, as well as our community life, community service, chapel, and leadership programs, highlight our belief in the balanced development of all aspects of a young person's life.
All learning is experiential, but one has to have an experience in order to learn from it. Middlesex is scaled to both encourage and require contribution from its students across the full life of the school. We believe that each of us adds his or her talents and energies to those of the community to make us all stronger. Thus, all of our students play a role in classroom discussion; all put on the Middlesex uniform and represent us in interscholastic athletics; all have their moment on stage and in the studio.
High school is a time for exploration as well as for strengthening interests, talents, and skills, and the myriad opportunities to engage and contribute set the stage for our students to leave Middlesex confident in their readiness and capacity to be contributors in their colleges and throughout their lives. In everything we do, we are committed to excellence and to the growth of our students as people, not just as intellectuals. As the faculty member cited above notes in closing, “our goal of finding the promise in each student envisions the fulfilled student becoming a full citizen of the world.” We hope to welcome you to Concord, for while pictures of our beautiful campus can offer you a fine virtual visit, you can only experience the spirit and vitality of our community in person.
Kathleen Carroll Giles
Head of School
