Happy Valley School opened its doors in the fall of 1946 under the direction of Dr. Guido Ferrando, a retired philosophy professor from Vassar. Ferrando believed strongly in the Socratic method of teaching, encouraging small classes arranged in circles to allow an open flow of questions and discussion between students and teachers.

He viewed education as a process of inquiry where students learn how to think, not what to think, and develop the ability to integrate subjects and cultures into a worldview.