The Pennington School (then the Methodist Episcopal Male Seminary) first opened its doors in 1838 in the small town of Pennington, New Jersey. At its founding, the School was housed in one building and enrolled just three students under the tutelage of one teacher. The New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Church, which founded the school, chose this site for its rural setting, which it believed conducive to health and learning. Early on, the founders identified three guiding principles: "the education of the physical, the training of the mental, and the grounding of the soul in character." Their principles reflected the vision of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who envisioned schools as places that cared for the whole individual; central to this philosophy was the belief that the real purpose of education is not just to fill students with information but to enable them to think. These principles continue to guide The Pennington School today.