Our Name
We named our school after the 11th-12th century French educator and philosopher, Peter Abelard.
After studying at the University of Notre-Dame (the name of the University of Paris at the time), Abelard set up his own school on the heights of the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, overlooking Paris. He is generally recognized as the first scholar since classical times who instead of merely lecturing and forcing his students to memorize, encouraged them to think, ask questions and debate. Abelard grew so famous that students from all over Europe flocked to Paris to listen to him. There was no room in the city big enough to accommodate this crowd, and Abelard started to teach in the fields surrounding Paris.
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Abelard was an enormous influence on his contemporaries and on the course of medieval philosophical thought. Most importantly, he was the kind of charismatic and inspiring teacher all of us at the Abelard School strive to be!
