Our Curricular Pillars

The Self

The pillar of the SELF reflects boys’ unseen, yet critical, self-knowledge, development, inner growth, and all related physical, mental, emotional, and moral developmental processes. The Self can be viewed as an evolving whole with multiple behaviors, skills, and habits of mind, built on over time. Holistic self-development empowers boys to observe, assess, and act in the world with purpose and from a place of integrity and compassion. The Self is developed in a multitude of places at EBSB: in the classroom, Advisory, Town Meeting, Clubs, and in the community.

The goals of the Self are:

• to increase one’s knowledge of the self, including the spectrum of one’s strengths and areas for improvement across all pillars through integrated and regular reflection;

• to become emotionally literate: to be able to identify and articulate one’s emotions and to learn to “read” the emotions of others and of social contexts;

• to connect empathy and action: to learn to put one’s self in another’s place, cultivate compassion, and create positive change in the world. Confidence, security and the understanding of the self build compassion.

The Prep

The PREP encompasses traditional academic courses taught in collaboration and connection with the WORK and SELF in preparation for high school and LIFE. The PREP is an inquiry- and discovery-based, experiential process engaging the whole boy through coaching, practice, and presentation. The PREP takes the National Common Core Standards and creates diagnostics, lessons, assessments, and opportunities of student self-reflection, all of which create a classroom of engagement, a place where boys do not just come to be fed information, but instead to feast and savor what the learning community has to offer and develop their own critical ideas and assertions for others to consider and partake. Our intent is not only to prepare boys for high school but also for life through fostering their curiosity and ability to recognize their own academic strengths and challenges. EBSB boys will grow to stand out as particularly engaged, thoughtful and courageous young men in their communities.

An EBSB graduate should be well prepared to demonstrate proficiency in Language Arts (by being ready to read and write in persuasive, expository, narrative, and descriptive forms) in social studies (by being ready to take world history or civilization); in math (by being ready to take algebra 1, algebra 2, or geometry); in science (by being ready to take biology, with a laboratory component); and in Spanish (by being ready to take second-year Spanish or the first year of a different language). A teacher’s job is to give them the experiences to practice building their mental, social, and physical capacity through drill and challenge, and to provide them with space to take those capacities to solve problems, imagine and create.

The Work

The WORK is the responsibility to utilize self-knowing (SELF), practical skills (WORK), and the love of learning (PREP) to compassionately create and communicate with one’s environment (LIFE). The Work encompasses empathy, design, building, creation, critical problem-finding and solving, collaboration, community, service-learning, cultural competency, reflection, and a confidence to grow through mistakes.The Work helps make learning and knowing more tangible by engaging the whole person within a project-based, hands-on curriculum that is rigorous and fun with clear expectations and educational purpose. It embraces all learning styles and approaches to a problem through its multiple methods utilizing all parts of the brain, body, and life experience.The goal of The Work is to build confidence in boys that through practice, patience, and purpose he can become the engaged, thoughtful, and courageous man of tomorrow. EBSB Work aims to achieve these goals through the application of and connections among Prep courses: social science, math, language arts, world language, and science. An EBSB student becomes fully engaged with his learning when he is able to apply his passions, skills, and life experiences with his shared world.

The Life

The LIFE is seen as the manifestation of all the Pillars at EBSB, in particular how each boy ’s self-awareness and community-mindedness build skills to be a good man and citizen throughout his life. Life is manifested in our program through our Work, civic engagement, our advisory program, modeling and mentoring, integration of our courses and our social justice orientation toward teaching and learning.

The philosophy of the LIFE holds that: • Boys engage more when there is a direct connection to the real world;

• Boys do better with abstraction when they can attach it to the concrete world around them;

• Boys’ ability to play in fantasy worlds allows them to work out their understanding of real life issues;

• Seeing interconnectedness helps boys see how their actions have impact;

• Nurturing living things gives boys a sense of purpose and prepares them to be nurturing members of the human community;

• Men need to listen and speak assertively; • Men need to be able to communicate their emotions; • Men need to treat women well; • Mistakes are essential to learning; • Boys need to work hard and play hard; • Boys need to adapt to new environments, situations, and an ever-changing world; • Personal and communal livelihood are equally important; boys should understand their own independence and interdependence;

• Collaboration in a diverse society is essential; • Leaders of the 21st Century have a responsibility to sustainability; and

• There are many ways to be a man.