Why Fayerweather
We take every child seriously.
A four-year-old dictates a story to her teacher, illustrates it in paint and marker, and holds the finished book in her hands. A kindergartener walks to Fresh Pond every week — in fall, in winter, in spring — until he can tell you which tree the hawk nests in. A third grader writes a persuasive letter to a Cambridge city official, and sends it. An eighth grader defends an original piece of historical research in front of peers. This is what taking children seriously looks like at Fayerweather.
We are an independent PreK–8 school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here, children learn by going deep. Not faster, not earlier, but deeper. They return to the same questions, the same places, the same ideas until they understand them the way you understand a person. That is what rigor looks like here.
Warmth is what makes this seriousness possible. Teachers here know children across years, not months. They learn how each child thinks and what they are ready for. The seriousness comes from the fact that we trust every child, at any age, to wonder, to think, to argue, to try, and to do real work for real audiences.
Ten years here builds something that can’t be rushed. A child who knows how to think. Who knows who they are. Who knows how to show up for people different from themselves. Who knows that learning is joyful. We don’t claim that lightly, and we don’t produce it by accident.
Fayerweather at a Glance
It's clear from a first look that we're different from other schools. Here's just a few of the ways we stand out.
