Mission
When we first visited GA, we were initially impressed by the physical campus and the enthusiasm of the staff. Now our son is about to finish 5th grade, and we love entirely different aspects of the school. His teachers really know him as a person. They have encouraged his intellectual curiosity while also giving him the support and boundaries that he needs. We also joined an amazing community of parents and staff who have become some of our closest friends. We wish every child could experience a school like GA.”
– Drs. Jamie Swanson and Kandan Kulandaviel P'30
Germantown Academy inspires students to be…
Independent in Thought
Confident in Expression
Compassionate in Spirit
Collaborative in Action
Honorable in Deed
Independent in Thought
A leadership mindset begins with each student having the independence of thought necessary to seek and find the truth in all that he or she reads, sees, and hears. We educate GA students to be curious, to ask questions, and to listen to and evaluate the viewpoints of others. Our faculty and staff are the guides and coaches for these explorations of ideas, theories, and processes.
Confident in Expression
Independent thinkers become self-confident individuals. Teachers and staff members hear expressed time and time again by prospective parents how confidently GA students comport themselves. Our writing, speaking, and performing arts curricula aims to instill confidence in all of our students. Alumni visits around the country remind us that the core of confidence built during GA years holds firm throughout adulthood.
Compassionate in Spirit
Effective leadership also involves the ability to care about others, to realize that everyone we meet can teach us something valuable and, in turn, can learn something of value from us. True compassion: empathy that enables independent-minded, confident people to recognize that vulnerability is the connecting spirit within us all.
Collaborative in Action
Collaborative action moves a group forward whether a community, a team, a Belfry production, a choir performance, or a class project. Active "followership" plays a significant role in a meaningful education. Well-educated people have learned when and how to dedicate themselves to the support of the whole.
Honorable in Deed
The Mission Statement recognizes that absent personal honor, curious, confident, compassionate people will not engender the trust needed to be effective leaders or followers. GA strives to teach students to hold themselves to the highest personal standards. To achieve this goal, adults in our community must be role models of trustworthy behavior. We want the simple act of entering the school each day to inspire each of us to be a better person.
Our core GA Mission consists of 21 simple but profound words, 21 words that will guide our actions and activities each day and every year. Making these 21 words memorable and meaningful involves communicating and living by them at home as well as at school. We ask families for support in this process by discussing these values with their children. Mission posters are in each entry way and classroom at school, and discussions about various permutations of these 21 words have already become a part of educational life. Such daily visibility at home and at school will make these 21 words the internal compass that guides our students/your children in their personal and professional lives.
The Mission Statement also serves as both GA's touchstone for all curricular and programmatic ideas as well as the philosophic structure under which current and future strategic vision statements will be organized and assessed. GA planners will be guided by these 21 words as we evolve our curriculum for a 21st century environment.
That the GA community is grounded in and guided by the same five principles that inspire and direct our students reassures us that Germantown Academy spaces and programs, teachers and students, ideas and ideals, while ever-evolving remain rooted in the mission. Independence, confidence, compassion, collaboration, and honor, skillfully combined, remain the formula for virtue and the foundation for permanence. So it shall continue for the century to come, a century in which GA students, teachers, and graduates will leave a lasting mark.