Mirman School was founded in 1962 by Norman and Beverly Mirman, who started the school in their home. A year later, the school expanded to a facility on Pico Boulevard, and classes were held there until the current Mulholland campus was opened in 1971. Soon after, at its new location, the school expanded to contain a middle school located on the same campus.
School structure
Mirman is one of a handful of schools for the highly gifted in the United States. Instead of having traditional grade levels, Mirman School consists of a lower school and an upper school; the lower containing Kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, and room 5 and the upper consisting of four years. Each lower school classroom contains approximately 18 students in Rooms 1 to 25 students in Rooms 5. Many students leave after the second year of upper school and matriculate to a conventional seventh grade class. However, the administration of the school encourages students to stay through fourth year upper school when they can matriculate to either 9th or 10th grade, or in some instances seek early admission to various colleges.
Lower school
At the lower school, there are two classes for each academic level. Each class has a primary teacher and assistant teacher who instruct the students in reading, mathematics, English, history, thematic studies and other miscellaneous subjects. In addition, there are additional teacher/specialists who teach separate classes covering science, drama, music, computer skills, Mandarin and Spanish.
Upper school
The upper school, in contrast, has no main teacher. Instead, each student takes eight different classes and moves among the classrooms throughout the day. Rather than storing all school supplies within a fixed desk, as the students do in lower school, upper school students have lockers as an area to store books and school supplies. The classes for the upper school are: Science, a world language, History, English, Mathematics, P.E., Art, and an elective. As for electives, 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 which gives students the ability to choose which classes they attend from a list of about 8 choices each period. The primary purpose of LEAP is to support the academic and artistic programs by providing students time for working on class assignments or independent projects. Students can also select classes that enhance the learning in all of their classes. Throughout the day there are a variety of choices available for all of the upper school students. It can also be used for taking missed tests, working on class assignments, or getting extra help wherever it is needed. LEAP has been an important part of the upper school curriculum for the past 20 years.
Trips
Field trips are common at the Mirman Lower School. In the lower school, there are several field trips throughout the year. In upper school, while daily field trips are scarce, in the fall the 1st year upper school students do a three-day primate and plant study at the Los Angeles Zoo and the County Arboretum as part of the science and anthropology curriculum. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students take overnight trips during the week. The 2nd and 3rd year trips stress team building activities. In 2012 the 4th year class visited Washington D.C. During the school year the upper school students will visit places such as the Getty Villa, and go on local community service trips.
Notable alumni
Academics
Benjamin Karney, Professor of Social Psychology at UCLA
