| George School | |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Pennsylvania, PA, USA | |
| Information | |
| Religion | Quaker |
| Headmaster | Nancy Starmer |
| Faculty | 81 |
| Average class size | 14 |
| Student:teacher ratio | 7:1 |
| Type | Private, Boarding |
| Campus | 265 acres |
| Athletics conference | Friends Schools League |
| Motto | Mind the Light |
| Mascot | Cougar |
| Color(s) | Green/White, Buff/Brown |
| Established | 1893 |
| Enrollment | 532 total 293 boarding 239 day |
| Homepage | www.georgeschool.org |
George School is a private Quaker boarding and day high school near Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA.
Contents |
History
George School was founded in 1891 and opened in 1893. It was named for John M. George who donated much of the money for the school. It was intended as a school for Hicksite members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) who wanted an alternative to Orthodox Westtown School; Although most of the early boarding students were Quaker, day students have long come from outside the Friends community, and today Quakers represent about one-fifth of students and one-third of faculty[1]. On September 18, 2007, Barbara Dodd Anderson, George School Class of 1950, gave a gift of $128.5 million to George School. The gift is to be received over a period of twenty years from an irrevocable charitable lead trust and is now being regarded as the single largest gift to an existing private school in U.S. history.[2] The gift has its origins with billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Warren Buffett. Barbara’s father, David Dodd, was a renowned economist and professor at Columbia University School of Business. The young Buffett sought out Professor Dodd at Columbia and was a student of his. Dodd became an early investor in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and remained good friends with Buffett throughout his life. Ms. Dodd stated that "This gift is meant to honor not only my father, David Dodd, and his legacy, but also all of the teachers at George School who had such an impact on me and are so important to their students today. I want to help George School because of the excellence of its faculty and because it is a school without pretensions, where caring for and learning from each other are as important as academic success." [3]
Location and geography
Although its mailing address is Newtown, PA, only a small part of its campus is in Newtown Township. The bulk of the campus is in Middletown Township. Both towns are in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. When founded, George School was quite isolated. It had its own train station on the Reading Railroad's Newtown line (later the SEPTA R8 line), and its own post office branch. As Bucks county has grown and urbanized, the campus has become something of an island of green amidst the sprawl. A campus map is available here Its property is now divided by the Route 332/Route 413 Newtown bypass, and the main entrance is on Route 413 south of the bybass. The campus is adjacent to Neshaminy Creek, and Newtown Creek cuts through the property. Both rivers are in the less-developed western part of the campus. George School is adjacent to Pennswood retirement community and Newtown Friends School, both also Quaker institutions.
Quaker influences
George School is governed by the George School committee, which is self-perpetuating by approval of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends. Quaker influences on the school are apparent in many of the Friends-derived procedures of the school, especially in the consensus format for faculty and other committee meetings, where all present must either agree to proposals or "stand aside" in order for them to be approved. A four-year course of spiritual study begins with a term of peer group meetings the student's first year, year-long "Health and the Human Spirit" class sophomore year, and trimester-long Bible and Quakerism classes during the junior and senior years, respectively. Additionally, all students and faculty gather for a twenty-five minute Meeting for Worship once a week, and all boarding students and resident faculty attend a longer meeting on Sundays. Also in the Quaker spirit, since 1942 every student has a "co-op" job, the equivalent to other schools' work-study jobs, but shared equally among all students regardless of their financial aid status. Finally, in the most apparent difference to outsiders, teachers and students all refer to one another on a first-name basis.[4]
Academics
George School offers a rigorous college-preparatory course of study in certain courses. To graduate, students must complete 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, 3 years of history, 3 years of science, 4 years of arts and the religious courses noted above, and demonstrate third-year proficiency in a foreign language. George School offers the two-year International Baccalaureate program, which certifies students to attend colleges and universities around the world. George School also offers Advanced Placement courses and examinations in Biology, Calculus (AB and BC), English, U.S. History, Physics, Environmental Science, Statistics and the school's four foreign languages: French, Spanish, Latin and Chinese. Additionally, students in the Portfolio Preparation class have been known to submit their work for the Art AP.[5] Students must take four full years of art, of which George School offers a wide variety: ceramics (mostly pottery), chorus, dance, digital imaging, drama, music seminar, newspaper (The Curious George, formerly The George School News), painting and drawing, photography, stagecraft, video production, orchestra, woodworking (mostly carpentry), and yearbook. In recent years, the school has begun to offer an Arts Foundation course that offers one trimester each of three different arts, and encourages most freshmen to begin with this course. George School places emphasis on arts and reading. Reading assignments are assigned throughout the summer and on a daily basis.
Service
All George School students are required to complete a sixty-five hour community service project before they graduate. Students work actively in projects and programs which are consistent with Friends' practices and are organized to meet the needs of others through ongoing one-on-one contact. Each project must take the form of direct interaction with people who are disempowered because of social, racial, economic, or health factors which limit their functioning easily within the mainstream of their own society. These projects vary from intense, two-week experiences in a school-sponsored, domestic or international work camp, to once-a-week experiences that extend throughout the school year, to preapproved independent projects. By extending themselves to others, students develop a sense of commitment; learn the potential rewards and frustrations involved in service; learn how specific agencies, cultures, and institutions operate; develop an appreciation for complex social support networks; and gain insight into their own values and life goals. Service projects may be completed during the school year or over the summer. Students can fulfill the service requirement any time after the completion of their sophomore year. George School has offered recent service trips to India; Nicaragua; Cuba; Costa Rica; Boston, Massachusetts; Coastal Mississippi; Israel and The Palestinian territories; France; South Africa; Arizona; New Orleans, Louisiana; Americus, Georgia; South Carolina, Virginia Beach, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; West Virginia; South Korea; and Vietnam. Students may also design their own 65-hour service project, as long as it involves sufficient face-to-face contact with the community being helped.[6]
Athletics
Students are almost always required to play a competitive sport or participate in a physical education program, thus the old saying "Doing nothing is not an option". Starting in the 1996-1997 school year, certain fully-scheduled students were permitted to take one trimester with no athletics. Still, underclassmen must play two competitive sports and juniors and seniors must play one:
- Fall: cross country, equestrian, field hockey, football,Cheerleading (Football) soccer, and tennis (girls)
- Winter: basketball,Cheerleading (Basketball) swimming, winter track, volleyball, and wrestling
- Spring: baseball, equestrian, golf, lacrosse, tennis (boys), and track and field
Where possible, George School competes in the Friends School League, but in certain sports, such as equestrian, football, and swimming, this is not possible due to the small number of nearby Friends schools that also participate. There is an annual competition with Westtown which results in the awarding of the Patterson Cup, which most students and faculty refer to as "The Moose". The scores are based on the results of all varsity and junior varsity competitions between the two schools. The School has a swimming competency requirement for graduation.
Publications
- The Curious George is the school's student produced newspaper on campus, formerly The George School News. The current faculty sponsor is Gretchen Nordleaf-Nelson. Editors for 2007-2008 are Emily Dayton and Samantha Grossman.
- The Georgian is the alumni newspaper that is circulated to alums, parents, and faculty.
- Argo is a student-produced literary and arts magazine. The current faculty sponsor is Terry Culleton. The editors for 2007-08 are Ben Biros, Zelda Blair, Emily Dayton, Christine Pontecorvo, and Rebecca Schmidtberger.
- Opus is the school's yearbook.
Performing Arts
The school has a very active performing arts program of long standing. Although it is not formally an "arts school," many of George School's most prominent alumni are performing artists. Theater productions are both student and department produced, and are performed on the Walton Center main stage or the smaller green room stage. Productions include conventional high school productions, such as Guys and Dolls, and more controversial pieces such as the Laramie Project. The most recent production is Post Mortem. Also George School's dance classes perform in Dance Eclectic every year. Dance Eclectic is a combination of student choreography and teacher based choreography.
Symbols and logos
- The school's seal is an oil lamp with the inscription "Mind the light," referring to the Quaker conception of God as the inner light within all people.
- The logo consists of the two words of the name (the school is never referred to as "The George School") separated by a stylized tree, reminiscent of the large one on the south end of campus.
- The school colors were historically buff and brown, but those proved harder and harder to find for sports uniforms. Since autumn 2000, the school colors have been green and white.
- The mascot is a cougar,portrayed by one of the cheerleaders.
Notable alumni
- Donzaleigh Abernathy — actress, daughter of Rev. Ralph Abernathy
- Barbara Dodd Anderson — philanthropist, daughter of notable Columbia University Business professor David Dodd
- Edward G. Biester, Jr. — U.S. Congressperson
- Julian Bond — civil rights leader and chairman of the NAACP
- Roger Brooke — U.S. Army General
- Mario Capecchi — winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine
- Ennis Cosby — Son of Bill Cosby
- Blythe Danner — actress, mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow
- Keir Dullea — actor
- Larry Groupé — Emmy Award-winning composer for television and Movies
- James Hammerstein — Broadway director and producer
- Gwendolyn Holbrow — artist
- Stephen Lang — actor
- Liz Larsen — Broadway actress nominated for Tony Award
- Mitchell Lichtenstein — actor
- J. Howard Marshall — businessman and husband of Anna Nicole Smith
- Meredith Monk — dancer, composer and choreographer
- George Segal — actor
- Stephen Sondheim — composer
- Henry S. Taylor — Pultizer Prize-winning poet
- Charles Walton — holder of the first patent for RFID technology
- Mark Whitaker — former editor-in-chief of Newsweek
- Kenneth Geddes Wilson — Winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics
Notable faculty
- Leon Bass — educator
- James Michener — (1933-1936) novelist
References
All from George School web site
- ^ http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=19
- ^ http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20070918_George_School_receives__128_5_million_from_alum_whose_father_taught_Warren_Buffett.html
- ^ http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=386
- ^ http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=19
- ^ http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=34
- ^ http://www.georgeschool.org/explore.asp?content=21
