MacLaren Library News Summary

The Value of a Sequenced Art Curriculum

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 19:07:00 GMT

MacLaren’s one-track curriculum is very intentional and builds year-over-year on the lessons and topics students have learned in previous years. Last spring, we sat down with our studio art teachers and asked them about the studio art curriculum and how the structured program, following this model, contributes to the students’ ability to create art themselves and to appreciate beauty.

The Great Conversation: M.F.K. Fisher and the Material World

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:12:00 GMT

The Great Conversation is a bi-monthly post that features contributions from MacLaren's faculty. This month, Mr. Alvarado compares author M.F.K. Fisher's material world of the 1930s and our students' digital world today.

What is a Liberal Arts Education?

Tue, 27 May 2025 15:25:00 GMT

Reading our mission statement, one might observe that it says nothing whatsoever about getting into a great college, having a successful career, or getting high test scores. Of course we are happy for our students to have those experiences, but we believe that humans ultimately desire more—are meant for more—than these exterior goods.

Agents of Their Own Education

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:56:00 GMT

MacLaren’s highly sequenced curriculum and passionate educators work to equip students at every age to be active participants in their own learning. “We start by developing skills and build to a place where students are prepared to have serious discussions about sophisticated topics, like philosophy and political theory and physics,” MacLaren’s Associate Executive Director, Bridget Rector, explains. “We want to equip students with basic ordered knowledge that serves as a foundation for ongoing learning.”

The Great Conversation: Math in a Liberal Arts Education

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 17:51:00 GMT

The Great Conversation is a monthly post featuring contributions from MacLaren's faculty. This month, Ms. Maslow shares thoughts about the important role mathematics has in a liberal arts education.

Upper School Clans: Building Community

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:30:00 GMT

Thomas MacLaren, our school’s namesake, hailed from Scotland. In honor of his heritage, we named our school houses “clans.” In Scotland, clans are tightly-knit kinship groups of people with a shared heritage. Here at MacLaren, all students are sorted into clans starting in sixth grade, and they remain in the same clan until graduation. Because clans are composed of students from every different grade, they provide a way to build community across the school.

Creating Beauty through Fine Art

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:56:00 GMT

At MacLaren, everyone is an artist. Throughout the school day, students learn to see beauty all around – in their surroundings, in other people, and in the artwork that lines the school halls. While growing an appreciation for beauty, students receive focused instruction to create their own works of art.

Curriculum Days

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:55:00 GMT

MacLaren invites its students of all ages to explore a rich curriculum with a sense of wonder and inquiry. Throughout the year, Curriculum Days provide an opportunity for students to temporarily shift from the normal rhythm of classroom life to enjoy in greater detail a particular aspect of their studies.

The Great Conversation - Mother Goose

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:54:00 GMT

The Great Conversation is a monthly post featuring contributions from MacLaren's faculty. This month, Mr. Alvarado shares thoughts about the beauty of Mother Goose.

Project Week: Learning for its Own Sake

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:50:00 GMT

As students brought in their Project Week Projects, one teacher overheard some juniors talking about their eleventh-grade research project on Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War. One group had built a map of Greece which was so large that it required two sawhorses to hold it. They had researched the intricacies of a particular battle, and the physical map allowed them to demonstrate the troop movements. As this group was sharing with their fellow classmates, they said, “We went way over the required hours we needed for the research, but we didn’t know or care because we had so much fun doing the project.” That statement is the heart of Project Week. It is learning for its own sake.

Kodály Method: Lower School Daily Music Training

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 15:47:00 GMT

Lower School students at MacLaren receive six years of daily music training using the internationally-recognized Kodály method. Named for a Hungarian composer and teacher, Zoltán Kodály, the method is designed to help students fall in love with music, using the human voice as the primary instrument.