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For Boys, By Design

Since 1890

Good schools are good schools for many of the same reasons: an inspiring faculty, small classes, engaged students, and a rich and compelling curriculum. As they design their own educational programs, boys’ schools are ideally positioned to shape their curriculum and co-curriculum with boys and their unique development in mind and heart.

In 1995 University School became a founding member of the International Boys' School Coalition (IBSC), and since that time our school has been a leader in understanding how boys learn, how they develop through adulthood, and how they mature into men of character.

Ranked #1 K-12 Private School Ohio

Expectation to Be More

In a boys’ school, away from the social energies and gender expectations often alive in co-educational schools, boys do not have to choose among activities traditionally associated with males or females. All of the school activities are simply what students do here. A boy will sing in the choir, play football or soccer, write poetry in English class, help publish the yearbook, or join the debate club. And seeing so many other students exploring a range of interests, he develops a broad sense of what it means to be male.

Patrick Gallagher, Head of School

All we are striving for, in any and all goals, is to be more – more capable or adept at something not yet mastered, in some fashion more than we were before. In this spirit, we are committed at US to making better boys.

Challenging a Boy's Mind

As we design our educational programs, we are uniquely positioned to shape our curriculum and co-curriculum with boys and their development in mind. We have designed a learning experience that makes purposeful a boy’s energy, his impulse to move and play, and his interests. Additionally, we adapt that learning experience as he matures through the lower, middle, and upper schools.

Erin Esposito Peron, Learning Specialist

The US boy is asked to consider how he thinks. In his awareness, he is able to grow in his relative strengths while building skills to accept new challenges. This ability builds the foundation of a boy’s self-concept and influences his connection to learning throughout life.

Defining the 21st Century Man

Our purpose goes beyond boys we currently teach to the men they will become and the community they will serve. As a boys' school, our charge is to ensure boys possess an abiding balance of self-confidence and humility.

Seven Richmond '18, Harvard University

US taught me how to discover depth in each individual I meet and how to surround myself with those who will influence me in a positive direction. I don’t know where I would be today without the love of my classmates, teachers, coaches and friends in the US community.

Modeling Excellence with Skilled Guidance

Sometimes we meet our students as boys and sometimes as young men. Sometimes we show them tradition and other times look to innovation. Sometimes we are supportive to the boys and other times we challenge them. The wisdom of our faculty and curriculum is to reconcile these opposites for the boys at the precise moment when they need it.

Dr. Richard Hawley, Headmaster Emeritus

The teacher-boy connection does not merely contribute to or enhance teaching and learning; relationship is the very medium through which successful teaching and learning is carried out.

Resources

There are a range of thoughts about raising and educating boys. These resources offer insight to some of these ideas.

What Schools Can Do to Help Boys
Time Magazine, October 2013
What Relationships Mean in Educating Boys
Education Week, May 2014
How to Raise a Feminist Son
New York Times, June 2017
What the Parents of Early-Teen Boys Need to Know
The Wall Street Journal, December 2016
The Boy Crisis
TED Talks, October 2015
Understanding and Raising Boys
Public Broadcasting System

Guidance from our Expert Faculty

The University School faculty have long served as a resource for parents and other educators. Their combined knowledge on teaching and raising boys is unmatched. The Boys Education Series opens this expertise to all through a blog and podcast. Subscribe and follow today!

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Dr. Bill O'Neil, Former Associate Head of School

We know boys, but we also recognize there are a lot of ways to be a boy. We celebrate those differences. We also attend to their social-emotional learning and want them to grow up to be good men. When you create that type of community, boys tend to want to reach those expectations.