Holden is a private, non-profit high school that has been addressing the needs of teenagers since 1969. Our students come from all over the Bay Area and reflect its diversity. Our schedule and calendar outline a strong program for about forty students in grades nine through twelve, with a student-teacher ratio of 10:1 or less.

Holden is accredited by the National Association for Legal Support of Alternative Schools (NALSAS). Students who complete Holden High Schools requirements are awarded a high school diploma. Most Holden students continue on to 2 or 4 year colleges. We have a strong transition counseling program that helps students with their post high school plans.

Each day’s schedule is different so students do not get bored, but there is enough pattern and structure to encourage a relaxed discipline. It is like a one-room schoolhouse with a college schedule. There is a solid structure here; it’s just not one we see in public high schools. We tailor individual learning and growth programs for all students by differentiating instruction. Students and staff benefit from the support of our two credentialed education specialists. Students earn credit in many ways, formally and informally, both on and off campus. Holden addresses the issues of adolescence head-on: identity, self-doubt and negative self-image, the search for meaning, self-expression, sexuality, alienation, authority, respect, anger, depression, alcohol, drugs, relationships, compromise and learning to be part of a community.

Social emotional growth is a clear part of the curriculum here. Many staff have counseling experience, and we have two licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapists, as well as Masters and post-Masters level counselors who do individual, group, and family counseling on site. No one gets lost; no one gets squelched; everyone is part of a community. Those who wither in public school often thrive here. The community bonds through shared field trips, lunches, special events, group problem-solving and decision making, as well as through day-to-day curriculum and interaction.

We strive to help each student unlock and rejoice in his or her own improvisational genius. It is there, waiting to be discovered. When students are secure in their identity as joyous learning beings, they have no trouble learning all the basics they will ever need.

The school works best for students who are awed and energized by the opportunities of the most unique, least authoritarian high school in the Bay Area, and who will use those opportunities.

Holden is a place that grows and changes with the people in it, and that holds a vast potential for healing, growing, learning and embracing life.

Joel, Renee, Kate, Daniel, Kristin, Abby
(The Directors)

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”

-Holden Caulfield, 16
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger