“Original blue men Chris Wink, Matt Goldman, and Phil Stanton, together with their wives, Jen Wink, Renee Rolleri, and Jennifer Stanton, conceived the school as an alternative to the New York school scene. “There’s this incredible pressure in Manhattan private schools to get young children into Harvard. Like, at 2,” says Rolleri, whose background is in art therapy and child development. The Blue School, Goldman says, was a response to what was “not happening” in education. “Schools are educating creativity and innovation out of children,” he says, “and sucking the joy out of that experience.”