Boarding School for Troubled Teenagers in Massachusetts

The John Dewey Academy:
Situated in Great Barrington, in the Berkshires area of Western Massechusetts, The John Dewey Academy is a residential, college preparatory, year-round high school designed for high-potential students who have not been succeeding in school and life. Serving Grades 10-12 and Postgraduate students, we provide an individualized and comprehensive education in a non-traditional therapeutic school setting. Our students are bright, troubled adolescents with a history of self-defeating or self-destructive choices.

At The John Dewey Academy, we do not believe in quick fixes. Instead of medicating students’ feelings, we address the underlying emotions–alienation, insecurity, fear, loneliness, hurt and anger–that have trapped them in a downward spiral.

We rekindle their hope for meaningful relationships and lives of self-respect. In a caring and intensely challenging environment, our students begin believing in themselves; they begin to care about their futures, and to exercise their freedom with better choices.

Student Profiles:
We treat our students as individuals with their own unique histories and struggles, but they do share some common characteristics. Despite their intellectual abilities, most of our students have underachieved in school or have avoided it altogether.

Many have a history of drug and/or alcohol abuse—often far more frequently than their parents know. Some have been hospitalized or threatened with incarceration.

Some have made suicidal gestures. Others arrive with eating disorders, significant traumas, girl-reading-on-grasschronic dishonesty, crippling perfectionism, or scars from self-mutilation.

We aim for students to master the subjects and skills required to succeed in college. More importantly, we hope to inspire them with a love of learning.

Since many entering students have fallen behind in school, we work with them closely to place them in appropriate classes, coach them in their difficult subjects, and encourage them to rediscover their academic passions. 

Therapeutic Boarding School for Troubled Teens Ages 15-21
- Grades 10-12 & Postgrad
At The John Dewey Academy, adolescents encounter a peer-based community of empowerment, an exciting educational environment, the challenge of real responsibilities, and the realistic promise of acceptance at a college of quality. In such an environment, they can change.

School features include:
- Our minimum length of stay is eighteen months, although most students take 2 to 2½ years to complete the program.
- Students carry a minimum of five courses a semester in the traditional divisions of English, History/Social Science, Math, Science, and Foreign Language.
- Highly credentialed staff of dedicated and passionate teachers, a small class size (six students on average)