"By the time you leave Presidio Hill, you know yourself, you appreciate yourself. You are your own self-advocate because you understand the way you learn. I think that helps a lot in high school."

Trevor McNeil has a unique perspective on Presidio Hill School, having attended the school as a student in the 1980s and 90s, and then returned as a middle school teacher in the 2000s. He values the school’s intentionally small classes because they foster a caring community in which teachers and students get to know and appreciate each other as individuals with unique interests and needs. “That community is directly tied to the pedagogy of progressive education, and it’s lovely,” says Trevor. “It’s supportive. It’s nurturing. It’s fun.”

“Project-based learning, student-centered learning, social justice learning, experiential learning—it all goes together,” says Trevor. “Every day as a teacher you’re teaching to different learning styles, not just because that’s what good teachers do, but because you know your students and you’re thinking about how each will respond to the lesson.”

Trevor appreciates that Presidio Hill School provides an education that empowers children to take responsibility for their own learning. “There’s also a sense, because Presidio Hill is a progressive school, that things do change,” he says. ”Not because it wasn’t perfect before, but because the people in it are changing.“ This approach broadens the educational program beyond what does the school provide for the child to include what does the child bring to the school.

For Trevor, having both been a Presidio Hill School eighth grader and a teacher of Presidio Hill eighth graders, this approach is exemplified during that final year when eighth graders say, “This place has changed.” The students, along with their teachers, are the agents of that change, according to Trevor. And the remarkable thing is ”they are aware enough of the spirit of the school to be able to articulate it, they care enough to articulate it, and they believe people will care what they think. That’s Presidio Hill.”