Peterson's 1999-2000

Private Secondary Schools

20th edition

The Smart Parent's Guide to Private Education

Princeton, NJ: Peterson's 1999

website
http://www.petersons.com

[excerpts]

 

Why Private Education?

by

Peter Relic,
President, National Association of Independent Schools, Washington, D.C.

 

Why do 5 million students attend America's private elementary and secondary schools? Because their' parents made a conscious decision.

Their parents made a decision to find the most appropriate school for their child, the school most consistent with the family's values and attitudes, the school that will best prepare the child for the future.

The parents of children in a private school constitute a diverse and special community, brought together because of the philosophy, mission, and opportunities offered by that particular school.

Parents look to private schools for values and sound relationships every bit as much as they depend on the professionally designed curriculum and pedagogy to meet the needs of the child. Parents coming to private schools emphasize a desire for safety and security, as well as strong academic preparation for college. They are looking for small class size and personal counseling, as well as opportunities in the fine and performing arts and in athletics. Parents want a nurturing and supportive atmosphere where their children will learn how to conduct themselves as responsible, contributing members of society.

A special part of the universe of private schools is the independent school, governed by a board of trustees and funded through tuition and gifts. This structure of governance and financing distinguishes independent schools from tax-supported public schools or church-supported parochial schools.

The challenge for parents who seek an independent education is to find the right match. Which school will best meet the needs of your daughter or son? Which has teaching styles consistent with your child's individual learning strengths? Does the school offer accurate assessments to identify precisely where your child is now? Is there a well-designed and challenging curriculum to bring out your child's full potential? Do the school's values harmonize with yours?

Values? Of course. Parents seek an independent school for its values. These schools are not reluctant to profess and teach values. The stated mission of the independent school often includes words like responsibility and trust, commitment and quality, and we are not afraid to emphasize decorum, sportsmanship, teamwork, and respect for all people and varying viewpoints.

To be able to succeed in all of this, the independent school must have an outstanding faculty---every teacher a teacher, every teacher an adviser to students-dedicated professionals who take the initiative and invest their hearts and minds and endless time in the best interest of their students. Such success also requires a partnership between the school and home, a compact of accountability---of parents as well as administrators and teachers. The strength of the independent school comes from the people, all the people, in the school family.

America's first schools were private schools, dating back to the seventeenth century. In fact, it was upon this foundation that the free or public schools were later established. For our country to prosper, all kinds of schools must thrive. We believe that the story of independent schools is a particularly compelling one and we want to share it.


Spiritual and Community Values in Private Education

by

James M. Goodmann

 

To expand ourselves naturally requires others to expand us. In public and private education, we have seen sweeping growth and reforms designed to expand the math, science, and reading capabilities of students in the United States over the past two decades. Parallel to that growth has been increasing concern for the moral and spiritual development of school children. The evidence is that no one is entirely whole or remains whole without some reference to, some membership in, a community. From their earliest beginnings, there has been a religious or moral telios that has shaped both the curriculum and traditions of almost all of these institutions. They are not shy about their cultivation of the examined life and the membered life. From generation to generation, students have been recognizable as having a distinctly Holton or Roxbury Latin or Hotchkiss or Westlake education. The very names conveyed a sense of who the products of these schools were. Like families or tribes, they were marked by a sense of origin and even by a sense of destiny not relegated to college and career expectations, alone.

These schools were, and are, in every sense, different types of communities. Their distinction is not merely one of a kind from the public school system. They remain distinct communities among each other, something that any faculty member or student will make clear to you in prolonged conversation and which will certainly be evidenced by the multiple communities profiled in this Peterson's guide. Each school has its way of celebrating the various seasons and achievements of their lives together. Each also has its way of taking into account human brokenness and loss, as well as of occasions and circumstances which contribute to the loss or denigration of common life.

As with all things human, however, expectations regarding end products of education tend to be automatic. We are all subject to the belief, however subconsciously, that our schools will function with distinction and will produce students and curricula which mark our graduates with an excellence to which we are accustomed and vindicate our various religious, moral, or academic traditions. But it remains for each generation to discover anew the importance of moral and religious education. It can safely be deduced that each time you introduce new life into the body politic of schools, and of society, such new life needs to be uniquely nurtured. This is the challenge to the schools and parents of our time: how to harness the passions of their students---for justice, for love and community, for life itself---for their ultimate moral and spiritual good and for the sake of larger society without stifling the uniqueness of each.

These goals are deceptively easy to recount; they are difficult and even dangerous (in the medieval sense of elusive or subtle) in the achieving. We do not have the same raw material we had twenty years ago, in either teachers or students. The last twenty years have been marked by changed assumptions about work and family life, as well as by new assumptions and expectations surrounding the moral and spiritual life. As well, we no longer live in a society where careers and life paths are easily defined. On the one hand, this adds to our anxiety; on the other, we are also alive with the possibilities such changes can introduce. Schools that work to craft mission statements, to update or revise disciplinary and honor codes, to design outcomes, or to introduce and expand programs of community service have encountered this two-edged sword of anxiety and possibility. Anxiety about survival and efforts to be creative and innovative often appear to be locked in their own competition.

As they are careful to focus on the fundamental notion of schools as communities, private schools can have an antidotal effect on the strife and anxiety that are such a large part of our lives these days. Parker Palmer (The Active Life, To Know As We Are Known) has suggested that learning has a natural communitarian dimension. The less we think of knowledge as something requiring solely competitive efforts, the more we see it as a gift to be shared or to be drawn forth from students, the more we will appropriate a notion of abundance in our efforts to make life more liveable for all.

This runs against the grain of a lot of notions we hold, and even treasure, about life in these United States---that individuals must struggle to shape their various destinies, that everyone must "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps" (a "strangely conflicted idea," as Palmer refers to it), and that nothing is free except perhaps a good disposition. Private schools, with their various religious and moral tradition and with the influx of new life that each generation brings, are well positioned to contribute to a common understanding of life as uniquely gifted and individualized but also as nurtured in a life together. This means less that diplomas from private schools will ready our students for the exclusive life and more that it will contribute unique voices to a world that strives to accommodate new notions of national, family, and religious and moral life. If independent schools are free to develop as centers of learning and moral growth, then they are also free to use their imaginations. And education is largely about the use of this faculty.

Various independent and private schools can attest to the workings of imagination in the changes they have made. Catholic schools have certainly grown dimensionally since Vatican III. Even though the dimensions of such growth have often been accompanied by some closings and consolidations and shared time with public schools, they are also accompanied by new families of enrollees who recognize the value of that tradition's moral and spiritual formation. Episcopal schools have made pioneering efforts in their world religions curriculum and social outreach and in overt efforts to include students of all types of social and cultural backgrounds. Friends schools have become educators of many non-Friends and a source for other school traditions regarding the centered life, the life distinguished by an awareness of the creative tension between the needs of individuals and of those of the community. Jewish schools are centers of excellent education in their tradition, while integrating the study of that tradition with a lively, liberal approach to studies, along with a consciousness for community service and interior wholeness. Other schools with or without religious affiliation have made monumental contributions in early child development and in reexamining and rediscovering the virtues of single-sex education. Each has given the lie to the assumption that our culture nurtures a homogeneous mentality or that kids and their needs and ambitions are more or less "the same."

In our era, every private school encounters the complexity of the various cultures and faith traditions that now make up both the student body and faculty of many private schools. Diversity is now something that is not only tolerated but sought out. Even while many schools seek a recovery of their traditions, they seek it with consideration for, and in the company of, those who do not share those traditions. While this does not inoculate anyone against prejudice or bias, there is a growing tendency among many schools to recognize, through their students and faculty, the other world in their midst. This other world contributes to the dialogue about what constitutes a moral education; it also has its own way of affirming the moral or religious tradition being examined. These diverse students and their families (not to mention faculty) were, after all, attracted to these schools often precisely because of the heritage of these schools, because of what they particularly cherish.

My experience on the staff of the Council for Religion in Independent Schools has given me a unique perspective on this phenomenon. Our Summer Ethics Institutes annually brought together people from schools all across the United States (and Australia) to talk about moral and spiritual development in their students. Often, this was a first-time exposure by some to schools outside of their tradition or their geographical "neighborhoods." Inevitably, the focus became the vocational development of teachers and administrators in the educative task. The cross-section of stories, case studies, and conversations revealed a remarkable similarity of goals for character education while simultaneously revealing a diversity of support and attainment of these goals. At each engagement, teachers discovered they were not alone in their efforts of moral and spiritual education. They became reconnected to or realigned with others in private schools. They also discovered the gift of each other's differences---that someone else's perspective could result in seeing a problem or challenge in a new light or make them easier to bear. The incumbent lesson was that the search to be connected, to be a part of something larger than oneself was also a desire of their students and students' families.

This is the latent challenge in all educative efforts we undertake today. Our schools do not exist apart from the society that surrounds them. They do not lodge on the edge of the culture but in its very midst and therefore carry the same hopes and anxieties that distract and delight the rest of the world. Among the hopes that members of school communities cherish is the hope that their precincts become, in the words of Daniel Heischman (Head, Upper School, St. Albans, Washington, D.C.), "zones of safety," that they become, as Joan Holden (Head, St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School, Alexandria, Virginia) puts it, "safe places to ask difficult questions, safe to make mistakes, safe to rejoice in victories, and safe to show emotion." (Source: CRIS Newsletter, September, 1995.) This notion of safety is not alien to any one of us. It looms behind any new exploration that has ever been made, behind any new effort to assert genius or individuality. There is always the hope that someone will be there to receive our stories, our discoveries, as well as to lead us to integrate those things into the life of the community, to assure us that we, while we are on our journeys of development, we still have a home. There is also the hope, especially alive in young people, that there will be someone there to lead us back to safety or to take us out of the way of danger, whether it is innocently encountered or willfully entered into. Teachers and parents might also add that there is the necessity of pushing students into unexplored territories, of leading our charges out of mental and moral lethargy into the discovery of themselves as contributors and skilled moral agents in a world that seems increasingly inclined to divest moral responsibility or moral initiative.

These understandings, it is hoped, occupy the higher places when we speak of moral and spiritual values in our school communities. Along with the achievement of academic success, the shaping of character remains the vital task of schools, both public and private, on the edge of the twenty-first century. Private schools have reason to be proud of their achievements in this regard; they also recognize that the task is never quite completed. Rather than being the endangered species they were once thought to be at mid-century, they are now flourishing centers of experimentation and innovation, especially in the sphere of moral development.

One of the more cultivated areas of experimentation is the involvement of parents in the life of the school community. Parents are encouraged with greater emphasis to come to back-to-school nights and parent forums. Some schools even make parental attendance at these functions a necessary part of the continued acceptance of a child. While this is daunting to some parents with multiple demands on their time, it is seen by the school, as well as by more and more parents, as a necessary part of the process of nurturing in education and of maintaining the flow of information between the two educating parties. On a similar note, schools make greater efforts to solicit parental input in the development of mission statements and in the recruitment of school heads. There is an increased awareness on the part of schools that parents are not adversaries from that they need to defend themselves, but partners whose presence to the school community is necessary to its wholeness.

The variety of private schools in the United States testifies to the nation's ability to experiment gracefully in the various paths of education. They also testify to the multiple discoveries of community that may take place in a flourishing free society. As much as public and free education is a vital part of such a society, so also is private education. Therein lies the possibility of moral community uniquely defined by creed and mission, of that which takes us beyond what Alexis de Tocqueville described as the pitfall of any democracy: the individual pursuit of petty self-enhancement. More positively, private education may well be one of the cultural streams from which we discover our ability to live with one another peaceably and with increased goodwill, however grave our differences. Far from being an exclusive refuge, private schools find themselves even more challenged to take seriously those issues of moral and spiritual development, which public schools and institutions are not legally obligated to entertain. They are those places that our culture must retain in order to continue alive, which will freely, sometimes forcefully, ask the questions: "What kind of person do I wish to be?" and "What kind of community or society do we want to have?"

James Goodmann has been involved in religious and moral issues in education since 1985. He has served as a teacher in two private schools, Landmark in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts, and La Lumiere in La Porte, Indiana. From May 1993 to September 1996, he was the Assistant Director of the Council for Religion in Independent Schools in Bethesda, Maryland. In this position he served as editor and publisher and coordinated national and regional programs in support of community service and moral education. He now works as a freelance writer and marketer


 Peterson's list of private secondary schools in the Northeast United States


School Descriptions

 

THE BALDWIN SCHOOL
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
website

Stressing both scope and depth in learning, The Baldwin School ultimately hopes to endow each student with the ability and enthusiasm for a life of continuing growth as a scholar, a woman, and a human being. The School strives to provide a challenging academic program in a lively, creative environment. The excellence of this program was recognized in 1984, when Baldwin was named by the U.S. Department of Education as an Exemplary Private School. Baldwin is known for its rigorous academic program, diverse student body, and genuinely committed and excellent teaching faculty

Founded in 1888 by Florence Baldwin to prepare girls for admission to Bryn Mawr College, Baldwin expanded rapidly from its opening class of 13. It now enrolls 604 girls. Baldwin celebrated its centennial in 1988. The School has had boarding students for much of its history, but in 1972 the decision was made to phase out the boarding program. Today, day students come from throughout the Philadelphia area; Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties; and New Jersey. The School is located 11 miles west of Philadelphia in the Main Line community of Bryn Mawr (population 8,400). Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College are within walking distance. Nearby bus and rail services provide access to the historic, cultural, and recreational resources of Philadelphia.

BLAIR ACADEMY
Blairstown, New Jersey
website

Blair Academy is situated on 315 hilltop acres adjacent to the village of Blairstown in Warren County, one of the most scenic counties in New Jersey. The school is 10 minutes away from the Appalachian Trail and the Delaware Water Gap, yet it is only 1 1/2 hours from New York City and 2 hours from Philadelphia.

Blair was founded in 1848 by a group of prominent local merchants and clergymen headed by John Insley Blair. The school was coeducational until 1915, when it became an all-boys school. Coeducation was reinstated in 1970 with great success, and girls now make up almost half of the school's population. Although the day-student population is small, it is important, adding a strong dimension to the student body.

Blair maintains an enrollment of 408 students, large enough to support a broad program of studies, activities, and athletics, yet small enough so that everyone can receive ample individual help and attention. The small class size (about 11 to a class) and the programs for guidance and counseling also make for close relationships between students and members of the faculty and staff.

CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL
Wallingford, Connecticut
website

Choate Rosemary Hall's rigorous academic program, through its small classes, both challenges and supports its students. This approach is the root of the school's reputation approach for academic excellence. Choate is an independent school where talented students and teachers from diverse backgrounds live and learn together in a creative way. Community spirit builds from this richness of difference in persons, cultures, and traditions to prepare students for an increasingly interdependent world.

The school's hope for its graduates is that they go forth from a school that valued each of them for particular talents and enthusiasms, affirmed the importance of personal integrity and a sense of self-worth, inspired and nourished joy in learning and love of truth, and provided the intellectual stimulation that generates independent thought, confident expressions, and worthwhile commitments. Ideally, they will have acquired an understanding of life's journey as an evolution from bold ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty.

Choate Rosemary Hall was established through the merger of Rosemary Hall, a girls' school founded by Caroline Ruutz-Rees in 1890 in Wallingford, Connecticut, and The Choate School, a boys' school founded by Judge William Choate in 1896 in the same town. In 1971, the trustees of each school announced their coordination, and in 1974 the two boards joined to form The Choate Rosemary Hall Foundation, Inc. Since 1977, the school has functioned as a single coeducational institution. The 400-acre campus is 12 miles north of New Haven, 20 miles south of Hartford, and a 2-hour drive from Boston and New York City.

CULVER MILITARY ACADEMY
CULVER GIRLS ACADEMY
Culver, Indiana
website

The Culver Academies seek to develop the whole student: intellectually, culturally, morally, and physically. They believe that growth comes through discipline, competition, and the earning an accepting of responsibilities and privileges.

Henry Harrison Culver founded Culver Military Academy in 1894 "for the purpose of thoroughly preparing young men for the best colleges, scientific schools, and businesses of America." Mr. Culver chose the system of military discipline for its "advantage in bringing about the best results in the development of boys."

In 1896, a fire at Missouri Military Academy brought about its consolidation with Culver, and with it came Missouri's Headmaster, Col. Alexander Fleet, under whose guidance the Academy made rapid progress. By 1939, under the leadership of Gen. Leigh Gignilliat, Culver had achieved national and international prominence. Steady growth, most recently illustrated by the founding of Culver Girls Academy on the same campus in 1971, has continued throughout Culver's history.

Sister school of Culver Military Academy, Culver Girls Academy was founded for the purpose of encouraging young women to attain the highest degree of self-development. This is achieved through a motivational program that provides the incentive for self-discipline, academic excellence, competition, and acceptance of leadership responsibility, but within a non-military framework.

Both schools share the campus, 'including thirty-eight buildings and 1,800 acres of rolling hills and woodlands, bordering Lake Maxinkuckee, Indiana's second-largest natural lake. Culver is 100 miles north of Indianapolis, 35 miles south of South Bend, and 100 miles southeast of Chicago.

DANA HALL SCHOOL
Wellesley, Massachusetts
website

Founded in 1881 as a preparatory school for Wellesley College, Dana Hall today sends its graduates to a variety of colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. In addition to maintaining its traditional focus on academic preparation for college, Dana Hall provides young women with opportunities to develop intellectual abilities, self-knowledge, and a sense of community in an atmosphere of women that is enriched by the diversity among its students and faculty members. Dana Hall's belief is that education should be a continuous process of personal challenges directed toward the individual's effective participation in a changing world. The School strives to provide a composite of learning through intellectually rigorous programs and independent study, through the sharing of common purposes and responsibilities for the School community, and through involvement in the world beyond the campus.

Dana Hall is located 12 miles west of Boston, offering the cultural and academic advantages of the city as well as its own attractive suburban campus.

DEERFIELD ACADEMY
Deerfield, Massachusetts
website

Since its founding in 1797, Deerfield Academy has provided a unique and challenging opportunity for young people. The purpose of Deerfield Academy is to educate young people---intellectually, aesthetically, socially, physically, and morally---so that they become responsible, contributing citizens and fulfilled human beings. A Deerfield education is characterized by a rigorous curriculum, lively exchange. of ideas, and supportive teaching. Its objective is to instruct students in the basic skills and subject matter of the humanities and sciences, to cultivate in them the habits and techniques of learning, and to enable them to be curious, creative, and independent. The school is committed to the arts and to the development of an aesthetic dimension in its students. The beauty of the campus, together with that of the village and Pockumtuck Valley, enhances this process.

The school's 250-acre campus is located in the center of historic Deerfield, a restored frontier village in rural western Massachusetts, 90 miles from Boston and 55 miles from Hartford. On 20 minutes south is the five-college area that includes Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire colleges and the University of Massachusetts, providing rich cultural and intellectual resources.

THE DWIGHT SCHOOL
New York, New York
website

The Dwight School was founded in 1880 as an academy of classical studies. Most of its students in that era went on to Yale University. In 1888, Timothy Dwight, resident of Yale, became active in School affairs, and the School was named to honor him. In the 1920s, the emphasis shifted to engineering sciences, with many boys going to Columbia, Lehigh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the U.S. Naval and Military academies. In 1967, Dwight became coeducational. The School includes among its distinguished alumni Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Moses, Hal Prince, Roy Lichtenstein, Walter Lippmann, Governor Herbert Lehman, and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau.

In 1972, the London campus was founded by Sir Maurice Bowra, late warden of Wadham College at Oxford University, and Stephen H. Spahn.

In 1993, Dwight combined with the Anglo-American International School to form a unique educational presence in New York City. A distinguishing feature of Anglo-American, now a division of The Dwight School, is the option of study for the International Baccalaureate (I.B.) diploma. All international programs are administered by a nonprofit, autonomous Board of Trustees.

Dwight provides a balanced education in the classics, sciences, languages, arts, social studies, computer science, and athletics. The program challenges and stimulates curiosity, imagination, and critical thinking. The School instills sound moral values and an appreciation for cultural diversity. The emphasis is on establishing a foundation of basic skills, which later leads to independent thinking and sound analytical reasoning. Each student is taught to write clearly and correctly and to speak with self-assurance. Pride, spirit, and motivation result from involvement in extracurricular activities, sports, and a rich academic life.

Dwight believes that everyone has a spark of genius and the capacity to excel at some endeavor.

EMMA WILLARD SCHOOL
Troy, New York
website

In 1814, Emma Hart Willard founded the School that now bears her name, making it the oldest institution for the higher education of young women in the United States. Her belief in women's intellectual capabilities, a radical idea for the time, is the cornerstone of a curriculum that has challenged Emma Willard students for 183 years.

The exceptionally beautiful 92-acre campus has twenty-two buildings. Emma Willard School is located on the edge of the city of Troy, across the Hudson River from Albany, at the crossroads of the Berkshires, the Adirondacks, and the Catskills.

THE ETHEL WALKER SCHOOL
Simsbury Connecticut
website

Founded in 1911, The Ethel Walker School was one of the first girls' college-preparatory schools in the country. A Bryn Mawr graduate, Ethel Walker opposed the popular notion of finishing schools and was determined to give her students sound academic preparation for a rigorous college experience. In 1917, the School outgrew its first home in Lakewood, New Jersey, and moved to its present site in Simsbury, Connecticut. Today, the world of Walker's is in many ways the same, offering rigorous and thorough college preparation in an environment that also encourages independence, the development of self-confidence, and the formation of enduring friendships.

Walker's campus is located 12 miles west of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. More than 600 acres, mostly wooded, provide ample land for cross-country skiing, scientific field research, and riding on a network of 8 miles of trails. in addition to the outdoor opportunities at Walker's, students enjoy the cultural advantages made available by their close proximity to Hartford, Boston, Springfield, New Haven, and New York City. Faculty-sponsored trips to the theater, athletics events, lectures, and museum exhibits in these cities are frequent.

GOVERNOR DUMMER ACADEMY
Byfield, Massachusetts
website

Founded in 1763 under the will of Massachusetts Bay Colony Lieutenant Governor William Dummer, Governor Dummer Academy today embodies both 234 years of tradition and an ageless capacity for innovation. It is at once linked with great historical figures, including John Hancock, Paul Revere, and John Quincy Adams, and is devoted to pioneering programs, including its SCIENCE 2000. The Academy provided a quarter of Harvard's graduates between 1768 and 1790.

Consistent with the teachings of Master Moody, GDA's celebrated first Headmaster, character and conduct are considered significant aspects of a secondary education.

Governor Dummer Academy's location on the ancestral 350-acre Dummer farm, 33 miles north of Boston, offers students myriad opportunities. The ocean is 5 miles due east, and the surrounding forests and marshes and nearby Plum Island-Wildlife Refuge provide both a natural laboratory and numerous recreational possibilities. The Academy's proximity to Boston also contributes significantly to a GDA education.

THE GRIER SCHOOL
Tyrone, Pennsylvania
website

The Grier School was founded in 1853 as the Mountain Female Seminary and was reincorporated in 1857 under the direction of Dr. Lemuel Grier. The School has been successfully operated under the management of four generations of the Grier family. In 1957, the School was reincorporated as a nonprofit foundation administered by an alumnae Board of Trustees. Grier is located on a 300-acre campus in the country, 3 miles from Tyrone, Pennsylvania, and halfway between State College (where Penn State University is located) and Altoona.

The School is committed to a highly supportive full philosophy aimed at developing each girl's potential as an individual. Competitive sports are offered but do not overshadow the many intramural, life-sports and creative arts opportunities available to each girl. Grier does not seek an elitist or high-pressure label and is proud of its family-like environment. "Friendliness" is the word most often used by visitors to describe the atmosphere.

GROTON SCHOOL
Groton, Massachusetts
website

Groton was founded in 1884 by the Reverend Endicott Peabody as a school whose aims were the intellectual, moral, and physical development of its students in preparation not only for college but also for "the active work of life." While the means of achieving these aims have changed, the aims themselves continue to govern a Groton education, and many of the original practices of the School have become valued traditions.

While Groton does not hold as its exclusive goal the preparation of students for college, it does offer a curriculum that prepares students for the most demanding of college environments. Groton is by design a small school, enabling the School community to gather together daily and to develop close personal relationships. As students adjust to life at Groton, they come to appreciate less the emblems of success and more the personal qualities of peers and faculty members. A notable characteristic of Groton is the expectation of leadership. All students are expected to grow into positions of leadership in the School, and traditionally every member of the Sixth Form has been a prefect of the School, with particular responsibilities in almost every aspect of school life.

The School is 40 miles northwest of Boston and a little more than a mile from the town of Groton. its location its the students the freedom of country life along with the accessibility of Boston and its museums, plays, concerts, and sports events. The 300-acre campus includes fields a id woodlands as well as the academic buildings and dormitories that are grouped around the lawn of the Circle.

THE GUNNERY
Washington, Connecticut
website

In 1850, Frederick Gunn fulfilled a lifelong dream by establishing a school for boys and girls in his home in Washington, Connecticut. In this setting, he and his wife sought to develop each student's character, values, and intellect. In 1911, The Gunnery became a school for boys. in 1969, a coordinate program was established with Wykeham Rise, a nearby girls' school, and, in 1977, coeducation returned to The Gunnery.

Nearly 150 years after its founding, the school's goal remains the same: the education of each student to his or her highest potential in an atmosphere of academic excellence, competitive athletics, and strong, nonsectarian moral guidance. Students are responsible not only for their own intellectual, physical, and social development but also for the growth and well-being of the other students and teachers. The Gunnery's special character and strength result from the way in which the faculty challenges and supports students to build their self-confidence them for the demands of college and beyond.

The 220-acre campus borders the village green of Washington, a small, historic town in the foothills of the Berkshires in western Connecticut. By car, The Gunnery is about an hour from New Haven and Hartford, 2 hours from New York, and 3 hours from Boston.

HEBRON ACADEMY
Hebron, Maine
website

Chartered in 1804 to provide college preparation in liberal arts and sciences, Hebron Academy anticipates its bicentennial year as a progressive independent school dedicated to academic excellence, integrity, and community. Hebron's 1,500-acre campus is an academic village, a place where students can enjoy modern facilities for research and study as well as an incomparable setting for environmental study and outdoor activities such as ski skiing, hiking, and canoeing. Hebron is 6 miles from the twin towns of Norway and South Paris and 16 miles from the larger cities of Auburn and Lewiston. The Academy is an hour's drive from Portland and 3 hours from Boston.

THE HILL SCHOOL
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
website

The Hill School was founded in 1851 by the Reverend Matthew Meigs, L.L.D., a Presbyterian minister, and the Meigs family was instrumental in guiding the course of the School for three generations. In 1920, ownership was transferred to the alumni, who now operate the School as a not-for-profit institution through a 31 -member Board of Trustees. Beginning in fall 1998, the School will admit young women as a coeducational institution.

The Hill School's 300-acre campus extends from a residential area of the town into open country. Eight miles from the School is a 200-acre weekend camp with a small lake, campsites, and skeet and trapshooting ranges.

The Hill School continues to emphasize both structure and guidance in the quest for academic excellence. The School's commitments are to develop a student's respect for both mind and body, to instill an awareness of accountability for all decisions, and to teach those standards of personal conduct that will be expected throughout life.

Pottstown is located 37 miles northwest of Philadelphia and 15 miles from Valley Forge National Park. Because of its Middle Atlantic location, students at The Hill can take advantage of a balanced climate, including warm autumn weather and a winter season that makes possible such activities as interscholastic ice hockey and skiing in the nearby Pocono Mountains.

HOLDERNESS SCHOOL
Plymouth, New Hampshire
website

Holderness School was founded in 1879 by a group of Episcopal clergymen who sought "to combine the highest degree of excellence in instruction and care-taking with the lowest possible rate for tuition and board." For 119 years, this charge has been carried out by extraordinarily dedicated and capable men and women, and the reputation of the School continues to prosper.

The geographical setting has been significant in shaping both the attitudes and the types of programs at Holderness. Much of the 600-acre campus is wooded, and its proximity to the White Mountain National Forest leads to a natural emphasis on the outdoors. Plymouth, a college town of 8,500 , is 3/4 mile away, and Logan Airport in Boston can be reached by car in 2 hours.

THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL
Lakeville, Connecticut
website

The Hotchkiss School was founded by Maria Bissell Hotchkiss in 1891 at the urging of President Timothy Dwight of Yale. The School was established to prepare young men in the basic skills of the classical curriculum then in vogue so that they might go on to attend Yale. The Hotchkiss tradition of academic excellence prevails today but with a much broader scope of course offerings and within a coeducational community.

A small school community with a large school diversity, Hotchkiss strives to develop in students a lifelong love of learning, responsible citizenship, and personal integrity. The Hotchkiss School's Statement of Goals and Purposes is as follows: The School is a community based on trust, mutual respect, and compassion, and it holds all members of the community accountable for upholding these values. The School is committed to mastery of learning skills, development of intellectual curiosity, excellence, and creativity in all disciplines, and enthusiastic participation in athletics and other school activities. The School encourages students to develop clarity of thought, confidence and facility in expressing ideas, and artistic and aesthetic sensitivity. In and out of the classroom, all members of the community are expected to subject their views and actions to critical examination and to accept responsibility for them. The School hopes that graduates will leave Hotchkiss with a commitment to environmental stewardship and service to others and with a greater understanding of themselves and of their roles in a global society.

The village of Lakeville is in the Township of Salisbury, a community of 3,700 people in rural northwestern Connecticut. The School is situated on 520 acres of hills and woodlands bordering on two lakes. The campus is 2 1/4 hours from New York City; 1 1/2 hours from Hartford, Connecticut; and 3 1/2 hours from Boston.

KENT SCHOOL
Kent, Connecticut
website

The Rev. Frederick H. Sill, whose vision of education centered on simplicity of life, self-reliance, and directness of purpose, established Kent School in 1906. From its beginning, Father Sill intended the School to be a place in which boys not only learned academics and athletics to prepare them for college and professional life but also learned the value of physical labor.

After a half century as a school for boys, Kent became coeducational and today is a community of learning that is dedicated to helping boys and girls develop their abilities and increase their knowledge. The School prepares students for college studies and beyond through a program that includes academics, athletics, chapel, daily work and extracurricular activities.

The School has a strong, long-standing affiliation with the Episcopal Church, and it is committed to understanding and transmitting the values of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It is also committed to seeking truth in all its forms and welcomes students from all religious backgrounds.

Kent School is in the small town of Kent, Connecticut, which is about 90 miles north of New York City and 50 miles west of Hartford.

THE LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL
Lawrenceville, New Jersey
website

The Lawrenceville School was established in 1810 as an academy by the pastor of the village church, whose elders had sons to educate. By 1885, the physical plant was greatly enlarged, the present House System adopted, and the enrollment expanded. Lawrenceville, a small historic town, is 55 miles from New York and 40 miles from Philadelphia.

In 1987, Lawrenceville became coeducational, enrolling girls at all grade levels. Girls account for 42 percent of the student population.

Life at Lawrenceville emphasizes individual responsibility for self-development and for community living. The purpose of the School as an academic institution is to offer an education that will help students not only to gain admission to college but also to become active and thoughtful members of society.

THE LOOMIS CHAFFEE SCHOOL
Windsor, Connecticut
website

The precursor of The Loomis Chaffee School, The Loomis Institute, was established in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1914 as a coeducational boarding and day school. The School's founders were 4 Loomis brothers and their sister, who united their considerable estates to found an institution for secondary education. The School was built on the site of the Loomis family homestead at the confluence of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers.

The charter, unusual for the time, stipulated that the institute should offer a vocational as well as college-preparatory curriculum, not discriminate against staff or students because of their religious or political beliefs, and offer "free and gratuitous education" as far as the endowment would permit.

In order to emphasize the education of young women, the girls' division moved to another part of Windsor in 1926, becoming The Chaffee School, with the boys' school becoming The Loomis School. The two schools were reunited in 1972 and became The Loomis Chaffee School.

In keeping with the vision of the founders, the School strives to develop independence of mind, a sensitivity to others, a capacity for hard work, and strong values.

The 300-acre campus is 6 miles from Hartford, 45 from New Haven, 110 from New York, and 100 from Boston.

THE MASTERS SCHOOL
Dobbs Ferry, New York
website

The Masters School, founded in 1877 as a school for girls by Eliza Bailey Masters and her sister, Sallie, became coeducational in 1996. The Masters School offers an all-girls Middle School and a parallel all-boys Middle School . The Upper School (grades 9-12) provides a coeducational framework utilizing the Harkness Table method of teaching, which features an oval table in each classroom around which students and teacher actively engage in learning. The Harkness Table approach encourages significant student participation, cooperation, and collaboration.

Dobbs Ferry, a town of some importance during the Revolutionary War, lies on the east bank of the Hudson River in culture-rich Westchester County, 20 miles north of New York City, 100 miles southwest of Hartford, and 200 miles southwest of Boston. The proximity of these and other major cities of the Northeast enables the School to use them as valuable resources in the implementation of its curriculum and activities.

The Masters School is committed to an educational experience that provides an opportunity not only for solid college preparation but also for the joy of learning as an end in itself.

MIDDLESEX SCHOOL
Concord, Massachusetts
website

Since opening in 1901 as a nonsectarian boarding school for 18 boys, Middlesex School has grown to become one of the most highly regarded small boarding schools in the country steadily expanding academic offerings, cultivating lively and professional faculty, taking the lead in fostering diversity, and welcoming girls in 1974. Through nine decades of challenge and change, Middlesex has always dedicated itself to developing the whole individual, nurturing personal and intellectual growth as well as inculcating a sense-of purpose and responsibility. Accordingly, Middlesex has defined itself as a college-preparatory school in the most holistic sense-an environment in which teaching and learning only begin in the classroom.

The well-preserved history of Concord, Massachusetts, makes the town an inspiring setting for the spirited intellectual activity that characterizes the Middlesex School community. Concord's Old Manse---whose former residents include Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson---and the Old North Bridge, site of the "shot heard 'round the world/ lie just 21/2 miles from the School's 350-acre woodland campus. With the cultural enticements of Boston only 20 miles away, Middlesex students find ample opportunities to absorb the richness and variety of metropolitan life while living in a comfortable, secure, rural setting.

MILTON ACADEMY
Milton, Massachusetts
website

Just after Milton's centennial in 1898, the Academy was divided into two separate schools as a reaction to a marked increase in the interest in separate education for young women. For many years, the Milton Academy Boys' School and Girls' School maintained separate faculties, facilities, and student bodies; today Milton has returned to its coeducational roots.

It is the rich diversity of students, coming as they do from twenty-eight states and sixteen countries, and their natural warmth that typifies the student body. Milton students are excited by learning and are motivated participants in the world of ideas, concepts, and values. They are activists and self-starters, and the climate at Milton gives them both the freedom and the inspiration to pursue their interests, to reach new personal goals, and to develop a great appreciation for the contributions of others. Their partners and mentors are dedicated faculty members who are fully committed to helping develop each student's unique potential.

Milton is located 8 miles south of Boston in the town of Milton (population 26,000) on a direct subway line to Boston and Cambridge, with their vast cultural resources. A few minutes from the campus is the Blue Hills Reservation, 6,000 wooded acres of hiking trails and ski slopes.

MISS HALL'S SCHOOL
Pittsfield, Massachusetts
website

Although Miss Hall's School dates its inception to 1898, the original institution was founded in 1800 by Nancy Hinsdale as the first girls' boarding school in Massachusetts and one of the earliest institutions of its kind in the United States. In 1898 Mira Hinsdale Hall, grandniece of Nancy Hinsdale, began her forty-year tenure as the head of the School. Miss Hall's era of leadership brought the School to the forefront of women's independent secondary education.

Since its founding, the School has remained convinced that the best learning and surest growth---in and out of the classroom---is that which occurs in a singlesex, small-school environment. Further, it is the School's conviction that girls thrive where there is sensitive, stimulating teaching; a spirit of competition; intelligent supervision; and personal warmth. The trustees, faculty, and alumnae of the School are determined to preserve a family-style atmosphere wherein a girl can mature surely and gracefully into a right, confident, self-reliant young woman. The School is fortunate in its location in western Massachusetts: Berkshire County is one of New England's outstanding cultural, artistic, and recreational areas. Music at Tanglewood, dance at Jacob's Pillow, and art at the Clark Institute are highlights of a region that is famous for its wooded mountains and New England villages. The 80-acre campus is a 5-minute drive from the center of Pittsfield (population 49,000), a city that offers all of the amenities that one associates with the center of a tourist region.

MISS PORTER'S SCHOOL
Farmington, Connecticut
website

Miss Porter's School (MPS) is located in the town of Farmington, 9 miles from Hartford, Connecticut. The 30-acre campus is close to village stores and within a 5-minute walk of the Farmington River, woods, and fields. Students are able to take advantage of the facilities of Farmington and the cultural resources of Hartford. The School's location also allows easy access to New York and Boston for social, cultural, and academic events.

A respected leader in preparing young women for competitive colleges since 1843, Miss Porter's School offers a demanding curriculum, collaborative environment, and supportive community, which distinguishes the best boarding schools in the nation. The rigorous curriculum includes Honors, Advanced Placement, and elective courses and provides a strong educational foundation for the talented student. On- and off-campus programs for juniors and seniors provide internships and independent studies that explore traditional and nontraditional subjects in innovative ways. All seniors attend four-year colleges. Miss Porter's mission is to challenge its students to become compassionate, resourceful, informed, responsible, and ethical young women.

MORRISTOWN-BEARD SCHOOL
Morristown, New Jersey
website

The Morristown- Beard School (MBS) was established in 1971 by the merger of the Morristown School (for boys) and the Beard School (for girls), both of which were founded in 1891. Three Harvard University graduates founded the Morristown School as a preparatory school for their alma mater. While the Beard School originated as a kindergarten, it continued to add grade levels and courses for girls who wanted to attend college. In 1903, the first graduate of the Beard School matriculated to Vassar College, thus establishing a standard for future graduates.

The Morristown-Beard School is located in Morristown, a historic town in northern New Jersey. Its location 25 miles west of New York City allows frequent field trips to experience the cultural and educational benefits of Manhattan. Situated on a 22-acre campus of rolling lawns and shady trees, the campus reflects the heritage and beauty befitting a school on the National Registry.

The purpose of the School as an academic institution is to challenge and support a broad base of learners, with a particular emphasis on preparation for rigorous college study. The School's goal is to guide students to appreciate the life of the mind and to become creative, thoughtful, and caring individuals who possess a sense of awareness of and a responsibility for the needs, concerns, and dignity of others.

NORTHFIELD MOUNT HERMON SCHOOL
Northfield, Massachusetts
website

Northfield Mount Hermon School (NMH) offers a unique educational program (the NMH Plan), diverse and talented people, and extensive resources. Focus, opportunity, individual attention, a real-world context, and values form the NMH Plan, because the School believes these are the elements that help students learn the best and grow the most.

Students focus their minds and energy by taking only two major courses each term in extended periods, for a total of six college-prep courses per year. These courses are complemented by minor courses, which do not require homework. Because of its size and scope, NMH offers myriad opportunities to choose among many courses, sports teams, performing arts groups, club activities, and term-abroad options. Students are given a real-world context for learning through technology (students and faculty members have notebook computers, which they use in class), integrated courses, and exposure to other cultures and values.

Individualized attention is ensured through the Moody system of advising, which matches teachers with advisee groups of between 5 and 7 students; small class size; career counseling; and a teacher-student ratio of 1:6. NMH also challenges its students to examine their values and to develop a sense of commitment. Every student participates in the School's work program---more than 800 students volunteer in some capacity each year---and in religious studies courses, in which students are asked to examine their own and others ' spiritual beliefs.

NMH began as two schools: the Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies, which opened in 1879, and the Mount Hermon School for Boys, which began in 1881. Both schools were founded by Dwight Lyman Moody, who wanted to provide a first-rate, nonsectarian secondary education for young people regardless of race, religion, and economic circumstances. In 1971, the schools became a single coeducational institution with one faculty, one administration, and two coeducational campuses.

 PHILLIPS ACADEMY
Andover, Massachusetts
website

Phillips Academy, the nation's oldest incorporated boarding school, was founded by Samuel Phillips during the Revolutionary War for the purpose of "enlarging the minds and forming the morals" of "youth from every quarter." A sister school, Abbot Female Academy, was founded in 1828, and the schools merged in 1973 to create a distinctive coeducational institution that combined the best of both traditions. Still committed to the education of mind and heart and dedicated anew to serving "youth from every quarter" in a truly multi community, Phillips Academy (usually called Andover) today includes 1, 110 young men and women from forty-six states and thirty-one countries. On a splendid 500-acre campus, under the tutelage of a gifted faculty, these students strive for academic excellence and moral decisiveness. The class of 1998 had 27 National Merit Semifinalists and 4 National Achievement Semifinalists.

The school is located on a hilltop in the town of Andover, Massachusetts, 21 miles north of Boston and less than an hour's drive from some of the loveliest beaches and mountains in New England. On the school's campus are a 125-acre bird sanctuary and two exceptional museums, the Addison Gallery of American Art and the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology.

PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY
Exeter, New Hampshire
website

Phillips Exeter Academy was founded in 1781 by Dr. John Phillips. In his deed of gift, Dr. Phillips incorporated a series of standing regulations that exemplified his belief in the need to link goodness with knowledge. Exeter remains a school that emphasizes academic excellence and encourages its students to develop lifelong habits of industry and intellectual curiosity while simultaneously underlining the individual's responsibilities toward others.

Central to the Academy's philosophy is the Harkness Table, at which an average of 12 students and a teacher sit in every classroom, engaging in seminar-style discussions. The teacher is a facilitator rather than a leader, and the students are expected to carry the discussion, sharing their thoughts about the subject and analyzing those of their classmates. The results include the ability to think critically, to communicate effectively, and to foster students' confidence in their intellectual abilities. The 23 National Merit Semifinalists in the class of 1998 testify to the caliber of the students in attendance and the quality of the instruction they receive.

The school is located in the center of Exeter, whose downtown shopping area lies within easy walking distance of the campus. The town is 50 miles north of Boston, 10 miles from the Atlantic coast, and 100 miles south of the White Mountains, where skiing, hiking, and camping may be enjoyed.

POMFRET SCHOOL
Pomfret, Connecticut
website

The Pomfret School community celebrated its centennial in 1994. Now in its 105th academic year, Pomfret provides a challenging learning environment in which students from diverse racial, ethnic, and social backgrounds prepare for college and responsible adulthood. Still at the very core of the Pomfret experience is an intense community atmosphere in which trusting relationships between students and teachers are the major foci. Students are encouraged to take meaningful risks and to explore their most cherished assumptions as they shape themselves into better students, and, ultimately, into better people within the context of intellectual dialogue in classrooms, intensely directed physical activity on playing fields, and creative stimulation within numerous art venues.

The 500-acre campus is located in the unspoiled northeastern corner of Connecticut, 35 miles from Providence, 40 miles from Hartford, and 65 miles from Boston. It is a 3-hour drive from New York City.

PROCTOR ACADEMY
Andover, New Hampshire
website

Founded in 1848, Proctor Academy originally served as both the local high school and a college-preparatory boarding school. Affiliated with the Unitarian Church until 1971, Proctor retains a humanistic approach to education.

Proctor is a learning community that is committed to realizing the potential of each student and teacher. Diversity is prized in an admissions process that values positive attitudes toward work, self, and others. Academic structure demands accountability, while students are elevated in their relationships with adults to act as young adults. Proctor is a supportive school; tutorial support may be arranged, and extra help is always available. Diversity is also prized throughout the hiring process and is reflected on a Board of Trustees that includes African-American, Hispanic, and Native American members.

Andover is a small, rural town in central New Hampshire, surrounded by mountains, ski areas, lakes, and camping sites. Andover is 25 miles from Concord, 40 miles from Hanover, and 100 miles from Boston.

The campus includes a 250-acre central green and 2,000 acres of woodlands and mountain slopes. The property encompasses four ponds; a ski area with snow-making, three runs, a 1500 T-bar lift, and two jumps; and more than 14 miles of cross-country trails.

ST. JOHN"S MILITARY SCHOOL
Salina, Kansas
website

St. John's Military School (SJMS) was founded in 1887 by the Reverend Elisha Smith Thomas, Episcopal Bishop of Kansas, and a group of a Salina businessmen to provide a disciplined environment under church auspices in a military setting. The School's purpose is to "provide each cadet with an understanding of the central role of God in his life, with an awareness of his particular needs and potentials, with the instruction and encouragement necessary for academic growth, and with an appreciation of the value of moderate, sensible, and appropriate discipline."

Located in Salina, Kansas, a city with a population of 44,000, St. John's has been an integral part of the community since its inception. For 110 years, the School and the Salina community have enjoyed a close and mutually beneficial relationship. Salina is the home of three colleges and other post-high school educational institutions. It is a progressive city and provides the cadets with many outside activities not found in smaller towns. The advantages of a larger city are combined with the small-town atmosphere to make Salina an ideal community in which to attend boarding school.

Salina has several theaters, and it offers other cultural and educational advantages through such institutions as the Salina Arts Commission, Kansas Wesleyan University, Kansas State University at Salina, and Brown-Mackie College. '

 SAINT MARK'S SCHOOL
Southborough, Massachusetts
website

Saint Mark's School was founded by Joseph Burnett in 1865. His goal was to offer a high-quality education in a school affiliated with the Episcopal Church. To this day, Saint Mark's remains focused on excellent academics, providing a rigorous liberal arts program that stems from a classical tradition. Its strong tradition allows the School to provide a safe environment in which students are encouraged to explore issues of their own faith and religious beliefs.

In 1973, Saint Mark's began to coordinate operations with the Southborough School for Girls, and in 1977 it became fully coeducational through the merger of the two schools.

Saint Mark's is located in Southborough, Massachusetts, 5 minutes from both the Massachusetts Turnpike and Route 495. Its rural, 250-acre setting allows Saint Mark's to provide a wide range of athletics and activities, while its proximity to Boston, Worcester, and Providence allows students and faculty members to take full advantage of the cultural opportunities of the three cities.

ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL
Concord, New Hampshire
website

St. Paul's School was founded in 1856 by Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck of Boston, who gave his country home, 2 miles west of Concord's center, as the School. St. Paul's now encompasses 2,000 acres of woodlands, open fields, and ponds. From the beginning the School has had an association with the Episcopal Church. Today, members of this community come from varied faiths and many backgrounds.

St. Paul's is committed to academic excellence and is deeply concerned with the quality of the life of its School family. The hallmarks of a successful community-trust, friendship, understanding, honest dialogue, and honorable behavior-have long been valued and continue to be important priorities.

St. Paul's actively seeks students who have the abilities, talent, and capacity to contribute to the community and who have the energy, enthusiasm, and desire to take full advantage of the School's resources.

As an all-boarding "family" school, St. Paul's hopes to inspire and cultivate in its students an understanding of how communities work and a willingness to make the personal sacrifices needed to sustain a community and serve those in it. The character of the School's students is as important as their intellect. Goodness outweighs knowledge in the School's scale of values, or, more precisely, the St. Paul's community pursues knowledge for the sake of goodness.

The School's tradition and heritage are Anglican, an expression of Christianity grounded in scripture, tradition, and reason that is open to and affirming of other religions. While St. Paul's represents the Episcopal Church, its understanding of the depth of religious experience and spirituality is not confined to any one church or faith. The School strives to be inclusive of all faith groups and recognizes that an important part of its understanding and self-identity comes from the tradition and beliefs, known as religious faith. Four mornings each week, the School gathers to begin the day in the Chapel where services may include a student or faculty member speech or a student musical performance by an a cappella singing group or a string ensemble. It is time for the entire community to join together and reflect on the events of the day in a way that enhances personal spirituality and provides a perspective for all aspects of learning.

THE SHIPLEY SCHOOL
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
website

The Shipley School was founded in 1894 by the Misses Hannah, Elizabeth, and Katherine Shipley to prepare girls for Bryn Mawr Co College. Boys were first enrolled in 1972. The School now has the biggest enrollment in its history, with 795 students (396 boys and 399 girls).

The Upper and Lower Schools are located on landscaped campuses (36 acres) one block apart near the SEPTA Railroad station and directly opposite the Bryn Mawr College campus. A suburban community 12 miles west of Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr is 90 miles from New York City and 140 miles from Washington, D.C.

While Shipley places the greatest emphasis on education of the mind, it is also concerned with the moral and emotional needs of its students and is dedicated to developing in each one a love of learning and a compassionate participation in the world. Through a strong college-preparatory curriculum in the humanities and sciences, the School encourages curiosity, creativity, and respect for intellectual effort. Shipley upholds and promotes moral integrity, a sense of personal achievement and worth, and concern for others at school and in the larger community.

SOLEBURY SCHOOL
New Hope, Pennsylvania
website

Founded in 1925, Solebury School is located 65 miles from New York City and 35 miles from Philadelphia. Solebury enjoys a rural setting on an eighteenth-century farm of more than 90 acres near the banks of the Delaware River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Solebury's founders began a tradition of informality and hard work devoted to thoughtful living. The primary purpose of the School is to provide a challenging college-preparatory curriculum that encourage students to explore and develop their academic, artistic, and athletic interests. Thoughtful attention to broadening social awareness and further development of personal responsibilities underlies the exploration in each of these areas. Akin to this objective is the belief that education empowers students outside the classroom walls as well as within. Solebury's aim is for students to graduate with the ability to think independently and to develop a sense of responsibility for themselves and for others.

TABOR ACADEMY
Marion, Massachusetts
website

Tabor Academy was founded in 1876 by Elizabeth Taber and is an independent, coeducational, residential school of approximate 470 students in grades 9 through 12. Tabor offers its students a complete educational experience founded on fundamental values of equality and opportunity for all and of kindness, directness, fairness, and honesty in one's dealings with other people.

Tabor also reflects the humility, the imagination, and the accomplishments inspired by life at sea. The Academy's unique location provides students with the opportunity each day to develop those qualities of mind and soul that sailors have always valued: knowledge and skill in ones work, a willingness to battle the elements, an understanding that life requires struggle, and the openness and good humor that are necessary for cooperation on board ship. While most students are not sailors as such, all students live by the sea.

The Academy is distinguished by a remarkable curriculum, an exceptional faculty, and a physical facility on the shores of Sippican Harbor off Buzzards Bay. Tabor makes full use of its waterfront location in its science, literary, athletic, and naval science programs as well as in its numerous programs aboard the school's schooner, Tabor Boy.

Tabor's small dormitories and living units, classrooms, and teams all bear out the school's fundamental philosophy that students must be treated as individuals. Close and personal attention to the development of each Tabor student is given by advisers who are responsible for 6 to 8 students.

Tabor is 55 miles south of Boston and 45 minutes east of Providence, Rhode island.

THE TAFT SCHOOL
Watertown, Connecticut
website

The Taft School was established in 1890 as a boys' preparatory school and became coeducational in 1971. Horace Dutton Taft brother of President and Chief justice William Howard Taft, was the School's founder and its Headmaster for forty-six years. Because he had faith in humankind's uniqueness and educability for high purpose, his was to be a nondenominational school in which boys would receive physical, mental, moral, and spiritual training for leadership and constructive citizenship. He stressed the opportunity that is open to all individuals, and particularly to Taft students, to make a democratic society work.

The focal point of the School's educational philosophy is still on the wholeness of the student---on the essential interdependence of personal and intellectual growth. Known for its close faculty-student relationships, Taft emphasizes individual development through participation in vigorous academic, athletics, and extracurricular programs. Seventy percent of the seniors take Advanced Placement courses and are involved in at least three extracurricular organizations.

The 220~acre campus is located 30 miles from New Haven, 35 miles from Hartford, 90 miles from New York City, and 120 miles from Boston.

TILTON SCHOOL
Tilton, New Hampshire
website

Tilton School was founded in 1845 by clergy and laymen of the Methodist Church as a nondenominational "literary and scientific institution for the purpose of academic instruction of the young in any or all branches of education." From its founding until 1939 when it became a boys' school, Tilton was coeducational. In 1969, the School returned to coeducation, admitting both boarding and day girls. For 150 years, Tilton has sought provide a well-rounded educational experience through the dedication and involvement of a highly qualified faculty in a total learning environment.

Tilton's location in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire has been instrumental in the development of programs that involve students with their environment. The foothills of the White Mountains and the Ski 93 region provide many outdoor opportunities. Concord, the state capital, is 18 miles to the south, and Logan Airport and Boston may be reached by car or bus in 1 1/2 hours.

TRINITY-PAWLING SCHOOL
Pawling, New York
website

The Pawling School was founded in 1907 by Dr. Frederick Gamage. In 1946, it was renamed Trinity-Pawling School in recognition of its ties with Trinity School of New York City. In 1978, Trinity-Pawling School became a separate educational and corporate entity. Trinity-Pawling's Episcopal background is reflected in daily chapel services and course offerings in religion, ethics, and psychology.

On weekends, boarding students attend services in the school chapel, at a Roman Catholic church, or at a synagogue.

The School is located 68 miles north of New York City along the Connecticut border; regular train service is available from Grand Central Station to Pawling (population 5,000). The campus, set on 140 acres of rolling hills, is just over an hour's drive from New York's major airports. On vacations, the School transports students to and from the airports and train stations.

It is Trinity-Pawling's belief that an appreciation of one's own worth can best be discovered by experiencing the worth of others, by understanding the value of one's relationship with others, and by acquiring a sense of self-confidence that comes through living and working competently at the level of one's own potential. Trinity-Pawling respects an recognizes the differences in individuals and the different processes required to achieve their educational potential.

WENTWORTH MILITARY ACADEMY
Lexington, Missouri
website

Wentworth Military Academy, founded in 1880, is one of the nation's oldest and most respected military schools. The goal of a Wentworth education is to establish the habits of excellence in students that will contribute to their success and happiness in life. Specifically, Wentworth uniquely combines scholastic excellence with the strength of character that has produced leaders, thinkers, and achievers in every age.

Located in Lexington, Missouri, on the bluffs of the Missouri River, the Academy has a 137-acre campus that provides space or athletic and drill fields, tennis courts, a nine-hole golf course, and natural woodlands used for military exercises and outdoor recreation.

The Army ROTC program is conducted by regular Army personnel stationed at Wentworth. The detachment normally consists of 4 officers and 6 enlisted personnel commanded by a major. All high school students are enrolled in a four-year course in junior ROTC. The curriculum is designed to support the goals of Wentworth and the Army: to develop good citizenship, self-reliance, leadership, responsiveness to constituted authority, and a knowledge of basic military skills.

WESTMINSTER SCHOOL
Simsbury, Connecticut
website

Founded in 1888 by William Lee Cushing, Westminster School was first located in Dobbs Ferry, New York. At the turn of the century, the School was moved to its present location in Simsbury, Connecticut. Westminster began admitting girls in 1971 and now has an equal number of boys and girls.

Westminster is a school with a strong sense of identity and tradition. Members of the school community recognize the importance of duties and obligations, not only to other people but to one one's own aptitudes, strengths, and opportunities as well. There is a sense of the importance of trust and of living up to one's responsibilities. And there is agreement on the importance of living cheerfully within the limits a society sets and of respecting its ceremonies and symbols. These agreements support a coherent social pattern with opportunities for many different kinds of people.

Westminster is situated on 230 acres of wooded plateau overlooking the scenic Farmington River valley, 13 miles northwest of Hartford. It is 20 minutes from Bradley International Airport and a little more than a 2-hour drive from New York and Boston.

WORCESTER ACADEMY
Worcester, Massachusetts
website

Worcester Academy was founded in 1834 by a group of Worcester citizens under the leadership of Isaac Davis. The objectives of Worcester Academy are to help students prepare are for college and, most important, for life; to encourage them to take an active part in the school community and the community at large; to teach them that they have responsibilities as well as privileges; and to assure them that there is value in striving to develop their potential to the fullest.

The school, which moved to its present site in 1869, is only a 10-minute walk from the center of Worcester, home of many excellent colleges, various libraries, museums, science centers, a large number of industries, and a nationally known civic center. The main campus is a 12-acre tract on which buildings surround a central area of open lawns and shade trees. The campus includes two classroom buildings, four dormitories, a gymnasium, the Warner Memorial Theater, and the student center.


ADDENDUM

Secondary schools, attended by WWI AFS drivers, but no longer in existence

 

BORDENDOWN MILITARY INSTITUTE
website

From 1885 to 1972 the famous Bordentown Military Institute was located within the historic district. The official beginning of the Bordentown Military Institute dates from the arrival of Thomas H. Landon, a Methodist minister, as head of the school in 1885. Many BMI graduates went on to become honor students at West Point or Annapolis. Officers trained at least in part at BMI served in every American war beginning with the Spanish American war. At its height, more than 300 students attended. In 1972, financial problems, and an anti-military attitude which led to declining enrollments, forced BMI to move to Massachusetts where it merge with Lenox Academy.

PEEKSKILL MILITARY ACADEMY
website

 

THE STONE SCHOOL
website

 

TENNESSEE MILITARY INSTITUTE
website

 

WENONAH MILITARY INSTITUTE
website


 Roster of AFS drivers of World War I who listed private school affiliation only.