Hawthorn School for Girls

Teaching Philosophy

Foundational to a Hawthorn School education is a solid grounding in the classical liberal arts. Throughout all grades, we provide training in the timeless wisdom and virtues of how to be a human being who can think, communicate, and act well. Meaning, purpose, and value are intrinsic to our curriculum in all courses, including the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) and the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric). Why? Because they help to understand how all different disciplines relate to each other. Because they speak of the highest truths. Because they form flourishing, humane, whole people. Because without them, we can be surrounded by the gadgets we produce, but devoid of a ‘raison d’être’ . To this day, all Western nations share in the central assumptions of classical Greek, Roman, and Hebrew cultures and civilizations, and a melding of these universal beliefs applies to all people everywhere. We aim to educate well-rounded individuals with broad vision and wide exposure to general, diverse skills and knowledge. By doing so, we believe that our graduates are not only valuable bridge builders in any field that they choose to pursue, but also young women who can go forward with strength and intelligence, outward and inward order, and faith in and dedication to the higher good.