Boutique School? No. A Unique School: A “Gemmary School”
Boutique - a small store selling fashionable clothes or accessories; a business that serves a sophisticated or specialized clientele
I don’t really shop, so my experience in a boutique is limited to the times when my wife drags me into one or when I am looking for a gift for her and I end up walking through that door with the fringy shade. I must admit that I’ve watched movies in boutique theaters and stayed in a boutique hotel in Manhattan (not a lot of moving around space in that room, but the price was “boutiqu-ier” than a standard hotel and the location was still good). But do I really work in a boutique school?
I heard this expression recently from a first-time visitor to Brimmer and May. She asked about the size of the school and when told it was Pre-K through 12 and under 400 students, her thought was, “ it’s a boutique school.” This expression sounds possibly complimentary but at the same time maybe somewhat deprecating. Thinking the best of folks, I took her to mean the former, rather than the latter. But I don’t agree with the appellation.
Boutique schools have been on the radar screen as educational entities since first appearing in urban areas in other parts of the world, notably in Switzerland, in the early 2000s. Schools are considered “boutique” because they not only offer smaller class sizes, personalized learning, student participation and leadership opportunities, parent involvement, community, but also often specialized foci—arts, athletics, design, entrepreneurship, languages, etc. Brimmer and May shares these characteristics with boutique schools, but I’m going to have to assert our primacy on them above and well before any 21st century boutique schools established themselves. We’ve had those characteristics and have successfully educated students with this model dating back two centuries already. However, I will take the “fashionable” and “sophisticated” adjectives that go with boutique, apply them to Brimmer and May, and happily walk out of that store without a purchase.
Gemmary - A house or receptacle for gems and jewels. (Note that jewelry stores provide many services such as repairs, remodeling, restoring, designing and manufacturing pieces.)
I don’t wear a lot of bling; hardly any, actually, and I don’t frequent jewelry stores so much, but I know some wonderful people who work in this industry. Because of how we approach education at Brimmer and May—student as worker, exhibitions of mastery, interdisciplinary work, exploration and play, creative and design thinking, development of essential literacies, among others, I feel like we are essentially jewelers at work. Our gems are our students, who have great potential to shine. We help polish up their facets— intellect, character, creativity, athleticism, leadership, community-mindedness, etc.—and help them become the gemstones they have the potential to be. A boutique may sell gemstones as part of their stock, but we help fashion them into luminous life-long learners. ‘Alliteration aside, I think I’ll take my (educational) chances…’ at Brimmer and May.
Brimmer and May School
69 Middlesex Road
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
617-566-7462
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
617-566-7462
As an inclusive private school community, Brimmer welcomes students who will increase the diversity of our school. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, or any other characteristic protected from discrimination under state or federal law, in the administration of our educational policies, admissions practices, financial aid decisions, and athletic and other school-administered programs.