Message from the Director of Studies

At my first Cate graduation ceremony, legendary English teacher Jim Durham spoke to the seniors about the first lines of Hamlet: "Who's there?" Jim suggested to the sixty or so seniors who had chosen him as their graduation speaker that the question 'Who's there?' is central to the quest for self understanding and intellectual discovery. Your years at Cate will set you on the road to answering that fundamental human question. The academic program at Cate is part of a larger program that will inspire you to seek answers through the search for knowledge and the development of relationships with peers and faculty. Our goal is to push you to find out what you can do and to stretch your conception of your own abilities and talents. You may find that you struggle in some courses, and in fact we hope that you will occasionally find yourself in a class in which you are stumped, perplexed, or even lost. And then we want you to find your way and learn the skills and intellectual tools to solve problems, to uncover mysteries, and to entertain and decipher diverse perspectives. We will make it possible for you to do all this in a classroom of students who are articulate, motivated, and smart and who will push you to think harder even as they become your best friends.

Cate's demanding and engaging academic program encompasses seven disciplines and is based on a liberal arts model that emphasizes critical thinking and imaginative inquiry. Class size at Cate ranges from two to fifteen, and academic work is undertaken with the guidance of faculty who have committed their lives to teaching and to Cate School in particular. Our well-developed program is designed to challenge you in an atmosphere that is at once rigorous and supportive, with course work that will help you develop an intellectual identity and specific strengths you did not know you had. When you leave Cate, we expect that you will think, create, and communicate at very high levels, and that you'll be able to conquer any college curriculum. But more importantly, we want you to have the confidence to address any intellectual problem and, in the process, get to know yourself better. Only then can you begin to answer the question...Who's there?

Lisa Holmes, Director of Studies & History Teacher