The School for the Physical City (SPC) is a small public school that offers students from 6th to 12th grade a rigorous academic curriculum in a caring and cohesive learning environment. Founded in 1992 to prepare, inspire and empower our children to take care of and take charge of our city, we use the city---its built environment, its communities, its history and its institutions---as a giant laboratory for education. As an Expeditionary Learning Center drawing on the experiences and ideas of Outward Bound, we begin with the idea that learning is an expedition into the unknown. Students learn to explore and learn so that they will be successful in college and as lifelong learners---and to imagine and contribute to a better world.