Advent was founded for a different purpose.
Advent was founded as a school where all of Boston's children could learn and thrive together, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, neighborhood, or socioeconomic status.
In Boston, sixteen years after the people of Reggio Emilia founded a new education philosophy rooted in equity, Judge Irving Kaufman decided Taylor vs. New Rochelle. This case was the first instance of a northern city — New Rochelle, New York — being ordered to desegregate. Some Boston families saw the decision as a sign of things to come in Boston and left the city to avoid sending their children to integrated schools.
Dr. Mona C. Hull, who would become Advent’s first head of school, looked at her community and said,
“Our children live together. They should learn together in reflection of the city they come from.”
With the championship of the Beacon Hill community, the City of Boston, and parishioners from Church of the Advent, Hull opened The Advent School on a shoestring budget.
The school was built dollar by dollar as families heard about the small, innovative, integrated school on the Hill. They were drawn to its progressive statement, "The school is concerned with the development of the whole child and offers programs to promote the intellectual, physical, cultural, artistic, and religious development of students with individual attention given to each child's needs and abilities."
Advent opened as a fully integrated school 13 years before the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts decided Morgan vs. Hennigan, which ordered Boston's public schools to integrate fully.
Today, Advent remains the premier progressive Reggio Emilia-inspired elementary school dedicated to educating all of Boston’s children.
“The Advent School remains committed to social justice and the possibility of a different world. Now is not the time for silence or passivity. Advocacy and action remain at the heart of change.”
The Advent School class of 1965.
The Advent School playground in the early 1970s.
The Advent School playground in 2024.
The Advent School Mission
Since 1961, The Advent School has stayed true to its founding vision: an urban school whose community reflects the diversity of Boston; a forward-thinking curriculum that inspires and engages a child’s passion for learning; a commitment to social justice; and a culture of collaboration where every child has the confidence to take action in a connected world.