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Mirman School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Mirman School | |
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| Established | 1962 |
| School type | Independent |
| Religious affiliation | None |
| Campus | Suburban Middle School: |
| Enrollment | Lower School: 225 Upper School: 120 |
| Athletics | Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Football, Track & Field |
| Color(s) | Blue and White |
| Mascot | The Mustang |
| Homepage | www.mirman.org |
The Mirman School for the Gifted is a school for gifted children, located in the Santa Monica Mountains on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, California. It is an independent co-educational school with around 330 pupils aged 5 to 14.
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The Mirman School was founded in 1962 by Dr. and Mrs. Norman Mirman, who started the school in their home, but later expanded it to a campus on Mulholland Drive after occupying temporary quarters in West Los Angeles while the Mulholland campus was being built. Soon after, at its new location, the school expanded to contain a middle school located on the same campus.
Mirman is one of a handful of schools for the highly gifted (IQ of 145 or above) in the United States. Instead of having grades, The Mirman School has a lower school and an upper school, the lower containing rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and the upper consisting of four years. Each grade contains approximately 35-45 students. The majority of these students leave after the second year of Upper School, when they are usually the age of a conventional sixth grade class, to attend local middle schools and high schools such as Harvard-Westlake, Brentwood, Crossroads School, Marlborough School and others. The students in the upper-most grade, fourth years at the Upper School, are about the age of eighth graders at other schools.
At the lower school, there are two classes for each grade. Each class has a primary teacher and assistant teacher who instruct the students in reading, mathematics, English, history, social studies and other miscellaneous subjects. In addition, there are additional teachers who specialize in and teach separate classes covering science, drama, music, computer skills, and Spanish. There is a strong emphasis on community service, good citizenship and diversity. For example, each Room 1 student is paired with a Room 4 "buddy." Throughout the year, the "buddies" share classroom activities, community service and special events together. Similarly, upper school students can "elect" to work one period in a lower school classroom acting as both a mentor and aide.
The Upper School, in contrast, has no main teacher. Instead, each student takes eight different classes and moves between the classrooms throughout the day. Rather than storing all school supplies within a fixed desk, as the students do at the Lower School, Upper School students receive lockers and store their books within. The classes for the Upper School are: science, a foreign language (either Spanish, Latin, or French), history, English, mathematics, P.E., art, an elective, and drama or dance. Students may choose to attend one elective which meets four days a week, or two different two day a week electives. On Wednesday, the Upper School has a program called LEAP (Learning Enhancement Academic Program) which allows students to choose which classes they attend from a list with about 8 choices each period. The primary purpose of LEAP is to provide students time for working on independent projects, but it can also be used for taking missed tests, doing homework, or working on assignments.
Field trips are common at the Mirman School. In rooms 1, 2, and 3, there are several field trips throughout the year. Students of room 4 visit California's capital, Sacramento, as well as visiting local areas of Los Angeles throughout the year. In Upper School, daily field trips are scarce, but each grade has a bonding trip for a week in September. First years (Upper School Grade 1) visit Catalina, second years visit Astrocamp, and third and fourth years together either visit New York, visit Washington D.C., or go to Colorado for a river rafting trip.
- Crispin Glover, actor, filmmaker, author, musician
- Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft
- Masi Oka, actor
- Nick Sagan, screenwriter
- Sho Yano
- Mirman School website
- "Where Bright Minds Can Shine" by Elaine Woo, Los Angeles Times - 22 November 2000.