We believe that bringing creativity and social-emotional learning into the classroom improves educational outcomes. Our mission is to cultivate creative, joyful and compassionate inquirers who use courageous and innovative thinking to build a harmonious and sustainable world.

Our country stands at an important educational crossroads. We can either prepare our children to be successful citizens of the 21st century, or fail to do so by falling back on outdated, test-oriented teaching methods that are being discredited around the globe. When children are not given the opportunity to think for themselves, take intellectual risks, and engage emotionally, they fail to develop critical thinking skills as well as fundamental skills for managing their emotional states and their relationships, the very skills that lead to success as an adult.

BLUE SCHOOL has developed a curriculum for preschool and early elementary grades that places creativity and social-emotional learning at the center of an inquiry-based educational experience. Our approach takes the best of the last 100 years in education and builds on it using the latest research in the fields of human development, social cognitive and effective neuroscience, and learning theory. Some of the most respected minds in education and child development—Sir Kenneth Robinson, Daniel Siegel, M.D., and Larry Cohen, PhD—demonstrate their belief in our approach by actively serving on our advisory board.

In just three years, BLUE SCHOOL has demonstrated that by integrating core subject matter and expressive mediums into student-driven inquiries, projects and social play we can help ignite in our students an intrinsic passion for learning and growth. Our curriculum incorporates six values that we have identified as key to a fruitful learning environment: Creativity & Expression, Family & Community Connection, Playfulness, Exuberance & Fun, Self Awareness and Well-being, Global & Environmental Exploration, and Multiple Perspective & Differentiated Approaches. Through these values, we are able to address the whole child as a unique but connected social being.

Blue School, located on Manhattan’s Avenue B, currently serves 61 children from preschool age through kindergarten and will continue to add elementary classrooms up through fifth grade to accommodate our students as they age. Because no one school can serve an unlimited number of children, we are dedicated to developing BLUE SCHOOL as a replicable educational approach. By serving as a laboratory school for curriculum development, BLUE SCHOOL can help schools around the globe improve the educational experience of their students.

Because tuition alone does not allow us to expand the school, share our approach more broadly, and offer need-based scholarships, Blue School has begun a fundraising campaign. To expand as planned, the school needs to raise $1 million annually through 2014. Please join us in our effort to give children everywhere the chance to develop into compassionate, creative and innovative thinkers equipped to build a harmonious and sustainable world.

Our online donation system is currently experiencing technical difficulties. To make a gift by credit card, please contact Beth at 212.228.6341 x113 or by e-mail.