For 50 years, The Field School has provided a student-centered education focusing on the whole child. At Field, we create a comfortable, nurturing learning environment where students can take social, emotional, and academic risks. 

Foundationally, a Field education puts the teacher-student relationship at the center of all classroom learning. Each child is seen, known, and heard by faculty, staff, and peers. Students are valued for their strengths and supported through their struggles. They are encouraged to challenge themselves while our teachers, who serve as mentors and coaches, inspire students to reach beyond what they believe are their limitations and see the opportunities. Our exemplary teaching staff provides the appropriate scaffolding to ensure that students are building the skills they need to be successful not just here at school but in the world beyond. 

Classroom pedagogy follows best practices and is research-driven. Faculty works collaboratively and engages in ongoing professional development to hone their teaching practice. Field teachers are lifelong learners and share their passion for their discipline through project- and inquiry-based study. Our students are innovators, problem solvers, and creators, often described as articulate, entrepreneurial, and kind. 

At Field, we encourage critical thinking and doing beyond the traditional methodology of schooling, beyond the content of a particular course, and beyond the walls of our campus. We believe that mistakes, trial, and error, are all a part of the learning process and that adolescence is a developmental time to be treasured and valued. School should be joyous, and at Field-- it truly is.

Working to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive Field community is a responsibility we all share. Our students benefit from going to school in an environment that is diverse, safe, respectful, and inclusive of all of their identities. 

We focus on continually growing as a community. Throughout the year, we host events and workshops to explore questions of identity, equity, and social justice. The hallmark of Field's diversity, equity, and inclusion work is building the skills to express and debate differences of opinion and belief while maintaining respect for each other. Acknowledging each person's unique identity—from gender to religion, ethnicity to class, race to sexual orientation—fosters understanding and strengthens the interconnectedness of our school and ultimately, our world.

In the classroom, attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion affects how you teach as much as what you teach. This kind of reflection—who am I? what is my history? how does my history inform the way I walk through life and the Field hallways? what are my biases?—changes the way that we interact with and learn from each other.

As a result of our work, the curriculum is constantly evolving and teachers strive to be ever more reflective practitioners. 

Students are leaders and learners in our diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Students participate in affinity groups and clubs each year, and Field's Student Diversity Leadership Committee (SDLC), a group of students who meet weekly with faculty mentors, are responsible for helping to plan and facilitate our community days dedicated to DEI work. 

Field strives to engage all members of our community with opportunities for learning and growing through seminars, workshops, and events. For the past 10 years, The Field School has sent students and faculty to the National Association of Independent Schools’ annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) and People of Color Conference (PoCC).

An affinity group is a group of people who share a similar identity. Although members of the group may have a common identity, however, it does not mean that everyone in the group has had the same experiences. These groups are places for reflection, dialogue, and support; they ultimately strengthen ties within the community and help students as they navigate through adolescence and beyond. Facilitating positive identity exploration is central to creating an inclusive and thriving community.

At Field, we have established affinity groups to create open spaces where members of our community can explore ideas about identity, share resources, mentor each other, learn, and grow. Affinity groups are one way that we can support one another and are important to the experience of all students.

Each year, we look at the diversity of identities in our community to establish affinity groups. These groups may change from year to year and groups may evolve as interest arises. These questions guide our vision and process.