Academics

Welcome

As part of an institution that helps usher children into the world of adults, McDonogh’s Upper School recognizes that its specific charge involves the key years of middle and late adolescence. Insofar as a school can provide an arena for resolving the issues of adolescence, McDonogh aims to create an atmosphere of open communication and trust between students and adults. Mindful of our responsibility to nurture the lingering child even as we demonstrate respect for the emerging adult, the Upper School seeks to provide guidance and support in order to enhance self-awareness and confirm constructive growth.

In striving to meet its primary academic goals, the Upper School encourages students to read, write, and reason perceptively; to develop mature and sophisticated vocabularies; and to assimilate and synthesize complex ideas. Additionally, we support our students in becoming proficient in at least one world language and familiar with the culture from which it comes. In order to ensure that our students’ academic experience is as wide-ranging as possible, we encourage them to participate in the arts, to understand the nature of historical progressions and their influence on the present and future, to experience the precision and scope of scientific inquiry, to command the language and logic of mathematics, and to remain curious about and appreciative of the world in which we live.

Merritt Livermore ’91
Head of Upper School