Young people who love to learn find teachers at TJ who know how each of them thinks, a curriculum deep enough to keep them reaching, and classmates from around the world who are just as curious as they are.
We know these students well, because they make up our school, and many of them arrive having waited years for the classroom conversations that truly spark their interest. At TJ, those conversations start on the first day and keep going for six years.
Breadth and depth
At TJ, every student is on the team and in the play.
The future belongs to people who can connect ideas across fields and master hard material. TJ builds both, so every student goes deep in numbers and words alike.
In a school of 88, the play can't go on without the soccer captain, and the team needs the student who spent the afternoon in the ceramics studio. Every student is counted on everywhere, so each one grows into more than a single label. At TJ, the team, the stage and the lab all need every student, so no one is ever just the athlete or just the artist.
“TJ has helped me figure out what I want to be in life and has shaped me into the person I am today.”
MAYA ALBANO '22
Academic Excellence
The bell rings and nobody moves.
Discussion depends on participation, so every student is engaged every day. When class ends, the conversation usually doesn’t, and students take their ideas into the hallway, dining hall, and beyond.
01
A shared liberal arts core
Every student studies English, math, science, history, classical and modern languages and the arts. Sharing the core means there is always a classmate to study with.
02
Discussion around the table
Around ten students sit together and everyone contributes. Quieter students learn to speak up because the room is small and safe enough to try.
03
Short, focused mornings
35-minute classes with breaks between them keep academic work concentrated, leaving afternoons open for study, help from teachers, athletics and each student’s own pursuits.
04
Accelerated pacing
Continuation courses, math in particular, move quickly, and by junior and senior year students are working at the AP level.
Outside Reading
Read, reflect, and write something you can be proud of.
Tuesday through Friday, by 8:30 in the morning, every TJ student hands in a short handwritten summary of what they have been reading: about forty words, with lines skipped for the teacher’s comments. The notebook goes back and forth all year, and corrections are always welcome.
Over six years, that quiet exchange shapes how students read and think, and how they speak up around the table. Graduates consistently name it as one of the most valuable parts of their TJ education.
Follow one notebook through the year
September · The Odyssey, Book 9
1 · First draft, 7th grade
In this part Odysseus and his men go to the island of the Cyclops and it is very scary because the Cyclops eats some of the men and then Odysseus tricks him by saying his name is Nobody and they escape.
September · returned✗
2 · Teacher’s notes
In this part, Odysseus and his men go to the island of the Cyclops and it isvery scary…
One breathless sentence - how can you break it into two? “Go” and “is” are verbs you could replace for greater precision and impact. How can you replace "very" scary with a single objective that achieves the same thing. What does the name “Nobody” actually accomplish for Odysseus?
The next morning✓
3 · Revision
Trapped in the Cyclops’s cave, Odysseus watches his men devoured one by one. Calling himself “Nobody,” he blinds the giant, so that when Polyphemus cries for help, his neighbors hear that Nobody is hurting him.
Now the verbs help you picture the scene. Was the hero's boast at the end wise?
April · Frankenstein✓
4 · By spring
Victor flees the creature he has made, yet its eloquence unsettles him more than its face. Shelley lets the creature tell its own story, and the reader begins to wonder which of the two deserves the name of monster.
A real turn in that last clause, well done. Bring this question to class on Friday.
A day and boarding school
Local students, at the heart of a globally minded boarding school
Day students share the same classes, meals and traditions as classmates from across the country and around the world.
A dorm room shared with boarding classmates, a home base for breaks, books and long conversations
Stay for dinner, study hall, clubs and performances, with community events that bring the whole family into school life
Five-day boarding, for weekdays full of friendship and a taste of college life, and weekends at home with family
TJ graduates are ready for the world, from New York to Seoul, Amsterdam or Cambridge. College counseling begins in seventh grade and grows from knowing each student well, so every college list is as individual as the student who builds it.
![[Describe the photo, for example: TJ seniors celebrating their college acceptances]](https://thomasjeffersonschool.static.amais.com/03_Prepared_for_leading_universities_worldwide-944-optimized.webp?version=639270262118730000)
