George School
Encyclopedia
George School is a private Quaker
(Society of Friends) boarding and day high school located on a rural campus near Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown from a single building (still standing) to over 20 academic, athletic, and residential buildings. Besides the usual college preparatory courses, including an International Baccalaureate program, the school features several distinct programs deriving from its Quaker heritage. These include work camps and community service requirements, an emphasis on social justice and environmental concerns, required arts courses, and community-based decision making.
members of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers) who wanted an alternative to Orthodox Westtown School
. The two schools have remained friendly rivals in athletics, although the sectarian rift between them was resolved in the 1950s. The Patterson Cup (commonly known as "the moose" for the moose
head at Westtown where the tally was kept by hanging tea bags on alternating antlers) is awarded each year to the school which has won the most varsity and junior varsity contests between the schools. An alumni fundraising competition between the schools, the "Machemer Cup" also exists.
The campus was built on 227 acre (0.91863722 km²) of the Worth Farm. The owners retained 60 acres (242,811.6 m²), including the 1756 Tate House and 1804 Worth House. The bulk of the school property was given over in the early years to a farm managed for the benefit of the school. The school's milk and much of the meat was produced there into the 1920s. The remaining property including the two historic houses was purchased in 1945. Parts of the campus were leased or given over to Newtown Friends School
in 1947 and Pennswood retirement community in 1979.
The first headmaster, George Maris, had been a strong voice in favor of "guarded education," separated from worldly vices, for Hicksite Friends. He was one of the group of Hicksites who courted George and secured a codicil to his will 74 days before his death. He apparently was not an effective headmaster, although the reasons for his lack of success are unclear; he was forced out of his position in 1901, replaced by Joseph Walton, who had also been part of the founding group.
The new headmaster, Joseph Walton, had been a leading candidate for the presidency of Swarthmore College
, the Hicksite-sponsored Friends college, in 1898. During his tenure as head of George School (1901–1912), the school overcame what had been a troubled balance sheet by expanding. A new dormitory, Drayton Hall, was built in 1903 (Orton had been built in a fit of optimism in 1897), and the first separate classroom building, Retford Hall, was built in 1903. Unlike Maris, he was an opponent of the idea of "guarded" education, and encouraged arts education. He died of a duodenal ulcer, aged 57.
George Walton, the son of Joseph Walton, served as headmaster from 1912 to 1948, the longest term of any head of school. There was little new construction during his term (the one major building was Bancroft Hall, built in 1931), but considerable social change. The enrollment nearly doubled, from 226 to 425, while the number of Quakers attending remained about the same, lowering the proportion. The first black student was accepted in the 1940s, and social dancing and football were introduced. Outside of the school, he was a prominent voice within the Friends community. He was part of the group that founded the Pendle Hill
study center in 1930, and he accompanied two of that group, the well-known writer Rufus Jones and D. Robert Yarnall on a 1938 mission to Germany on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee
to allow that group to distribute relief in Poland, then under occupation. After retiring from George School, he was an instrumental figure in reconciling the Hicksite and Orthodox Philadelphia Yearly Meetings in 1955.
Following World War II, teacher Walter Mohr, who had also worked with the American Friends Service Committee, organized affiliations with two German schools, Jacobi Gymnasium for boys in Düsseldorf and Gertraudenschule for girls in Berlin, at first sending relief supplies and organizing student exchanges. In 1950, the first of almost twenty years of German workcamps began. In the late 1960s, these affiliations and work camps began to spread, to Russia, Africa, and Latin America, and came to include work projects domestically.
The next headmaster, Richard McFeely, ushered in an era of campus growth, and of a change to a less formal relationship between students and faculty: he insisted on being addressed by first name, and was generally known as "Mr Dick." McFeely had contracted polio while a student at Swarthmore. He in fact was friendly with Franklin D. Roosevelt
, having spent time with him at Warm Springs, Georgia
. During his time as head (1948–1966), the Alumni Gym, Hallowell Hall, McFeely Library (so named after his death), and Walton Center were constructed. He was forced to retire because of poor health resulting from his polio, and died within the year.
During the mid-1950s, Julian Bond
, later a prominent civil rights leader, attended George School. While he did encounter some cases of racism while attending there, he was impressed by anti-racist philosophy of the school, and first encountered ideas of non-violence and social action. One event in particular involves Bond, a varsity athlete, going to Philadelphia with his white girlfriend while wearing George School apparel. Upon returning he was reprimanded by the dean. George School has claimed it was based on a policy of not wearing George School insignia apparel off-campus, but Bond believed it was based on racism and "That was just like somebody stopping you and slapping you across the face."
Eric Curtis, an Englishman and a former faculty member at Earlham College, was brought in to be the headmaster after McFeely, serving from 1967 (there was an interim head for 1966–67) until 1979. He oversaw a tumultuous time of change in the social relationships within the school, as assertive students and younger faculty battled older faculty and administrators (and the George School Committee) over a variety of procedures. The two major new buildings in his time were the Science Center and the Sports Center.
David Bourns was head of school from 1979 to 2001, when he left to head the Paul Cuffee charter school in Providence, Rhode Island
. His time began as a kind of recentering after the tumult of the previous decade. New emphasis on academic rigor was enforced, along with more focused activism: the school built an Alternative Energy Center in the mid-1980s, and for several years hosted a regional "Peace Fair." He was succeeded by Nancy Starmer, the first non-member of the Society of Friends to head the school.
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 the single largest gift to an existing private school in U.S. history. The gift has its origins with billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Warren Buffett
. Buffett was a student of Anderson's father, David Dodd
, an economist and professor at Columbia University
School of Business. Dodd became an early investor in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
. 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." Ms. Dodd Anderson, Mr. Buffet, and Mollie Dodd Anderson, granddaughter of Barbara Dodd Anderson were present for the dedication of the new LEED Gold Certified Learning Commons and Mollie Dodd Anderson Library on October 17, 2009.
. The bulk of the campus is in Middletown Township
. Both towns are in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
.
Its property is now divided by the Route 332
/Route 413
Newtown bypass, and the main entrance is on Route 413 south of the bypass.
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. A campus map is available here
The Pennswood retirement community and Newtown Friends School
, also Quaker institutions, are on George School land and adjacent to the campus.
on the Reading Railroad's Newtown line (later the Fox Chase Line
), and its own post office
branch. Commuter train service was suspended on January 14, 1983.
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 Essentials of a Friends Community in the student's first year, followed by two terms of Faith Traditions, an in-depth World Religions course. Sophomore year students take a year-long "Health and the Human Spirit" class, 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 had 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 usually refer to one another on a first-name basis.
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
, 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.
Students must take four full years of art. George school offers classes in
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.
project before they graduate. Students work on projects and in programs that reflect Friends' practices. Projects must be grounded in one-on-one contact with communities and persons who are disempowered because of social, racial, economic, or health factors. These projects include intense, two-week experiences in school-sponsored, domestic or international work camps; once-a-week experiences that extend throughout the school year; and preapproved independent projects. Service projects may be completed during the school year or vacation time, any time after the completion of a student's sophomore year.
George School's work-camps began after the Second World War, with students traveling to help those in need both domestically and internationally. Recent work camps and service trips include 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
.
While more than half of the students at George School are on significant financial aid, proportionally few of those students can afford to go on international service trips as the maximum scholarship offered on most trips amounts to roughly half of the total costs, which range from $2000 to over $5000.
program. Starting in the 1996/97 school year, certain fully scheduled students have been permitted to take one trimester with no athletics. Still, underclassmen must play two interscholastic competitive sports and juniors and seniors must play one:
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 league members 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 once had a swimming competency requirement for graduation.
Both student- and department-produced theater productions are performed in Walton Center on the main stage or the smaller green room stage. Productions range from conventional high school productions, such as Guys and Dolls to more controversial pieces such as the Laramie Project. George School's dance classes perform in the annual Dance Eclectic, a combination of student and faculty-created choreography. The George School Community Chorus includes a mixture of students and adults, and offers an annual winter concert. George School's Musical Theater course performs a musical in Walton Auditorium in the spring or winter term.
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Society of Friends) boarding and day high school located on a rural campus near Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown from a single building (still standing) to over 20 academic, athletic, and residential buildings. Besides the usual college preparatory courses, including an International Baccalaureate program, the school features several distinct programs deriving from its Quaker heritage. These include work camps and community service requirements, an emphasis on social justice and environmental concerns, required arts courses, and community-based decision making.
History
George School was founded in 1891 and opened in 1893. It is named for John M. George, who donated much of the money for the school. It was intended as a school for HicksiteElias Hicks
Elias Hicks was an itinerant Quaker preacher from Long Island, New York. He promoted doctrines that embroiled him in controversy that led to the first major schism within the Religious Society of Friends...
members of the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers) who wanted an alternative to Orthodox Westtown School
Westtown School
Westtown School is a coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.-About Westtown School:...
. The two schools have remained friendly rivals in athletics, although the sectarian rift between them was resolved in the 1950s. The Patterson Cup (commonly known as "the moose" for the moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
head at Westtown where the tally was kept by hanging tea bags on alternating antlers) is awarded each year to the school which has won the most varsity and junior varsity contests between the schools. An alumni fundraising competition between the schools, the "Machemer Cup" also exists.
The campus was built on 227 acre (0.91863722 km²) of the Worth Farm. The owners retained 60 acres (242,811.6 m²), including the 1756 Tate House and 1804 Worth House. The bulk of the school property was given over in the early years to a farm managed for the benefit of the school. The school's milk and much of the meat was produced there into the 1920s. The remaining property including the two historic houses was purchased in 1945. Parts of the campus were leased or given over to Newtown Friends School
Newtown Friends School
Newtown Friends School is a coeducational prekindergarten through eighth grade Quaker independent school founded in 1948 and located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Though its name and address indicate it is in Newtown Township, it is physically located in Middletown Township...
in 1947 and Pennswood retirement community in 1979.
The first headmaster, George Maris, had been a strong voice in favor of "guarded education," separated from worldly vices, for Hicksite Friends. He was one of the group of Hicksites who courted George and secured a codicil to his will 74 days before his death. He apparently was not an effective headmaster, although the reasons for his lack of success are unclear; he was forced out of his position in 1901, replaced by Joseph Walton, who had also been part of the founding group.
The new headmaster, Joseph Walton, had been a leading candidate for the presidency of Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
, the Hicksite-sponsored Friends college, in 1898. During his tenure as head of George School (1901–1912), the school overcame what had been a troubled balance sheet by expanding. A new dormitory, Drayton Hall, was built in 1903 (Orton had been built in a fit of optimism in 1897), and the first separate classroom building, Retford Hall, was built in 1903. Unlike Maris, he was an opponent of the idea of "guarded" education, and encouraged arts education. He died of a duodenal ulcer, aged 57.
George Walton, the son of Joseph Walton, served as headmaster from 1912 to 1948, the longest term of any head of school. There was little new construction during his term (the one major building was Bancroft Hall, built in 1931), but considerable social change. The enrollment nearly doubled, from 226 to 425, while the number of Quakers attending remained about the same, lowering the proportion. The first black student was accepted in the 1940s, and social dancing and football were introduced. Outside of the school, he was a prominent voice within the Friends community. He was part of the group that founded the Pendle Hill
Pendle Hill Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation
Pendle Hill is a Quaker study and retreat center located on a campus in suburban Wallingford, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. It was named for the hill in Lancashire, England, that the first Quaker preacher described as the site of his calling to ministry....
study center in 1930, and he accompanied two of that group, the well-known writer Rufus Jones and D. Robert Yarnall on a 1938 mission to Germany on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
to allow that group to distribute relief in Poland, then under occupation. After retiring from George School, he was an instrumental figure in reconciling the Hicksite and Orthodox Philadelphia Yearly Meetings in 1955.
Following World War II, teacher Walter Mohr, who had also worked with the American Friends Service Committee, organized affiliations with two German schools, Jacobi Gymnasium for boys in Düsseldorf and Gertraudenschule for girls in Berlin, at first sending relief supplies and organizing student exchanges. In 1950, the first of almost twenty years of German workcamps began. In the late 1960s, these affiliations and work camps began to spread, to Russia, Africa, and Latin America, and came to include work projects domestically.
The next headmaster, Richard McFeely, ushered in an era of campus growth, and of a change to a less formal relationship between students and faculty: he insisted on being addressed by first name, and was generally known as "Mr Dick." McFeely had contracted polio while a student at Swarthmore. He in fact was friendly with Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
, having spent time with him at Warm Springs, Georgia
Warm Springs, Georgia
Warm Springs is a city in Meriwether County, Georgia, United States. The population was 478 at the 2010 census.-History:Warm Springs first came to prominence in the 19th century as a spa town, due to its mineral springs which flow constantly at nearly 32 °C...
. During his time as head (1948–1966), the Alumni Gym, Hallowell Hall, McFeely Library (so named after his death), and Walton Center were constructed. He was forced to retire because of poor health resulting from his polio, and died within the year.
During the mid-1950s, Julian Bond
Julian Bond
Horace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
, later a prominent civil rights leader, attended George School. While he did encounter some cases of racism while attending there, he was impressed by anti-racist philosophy of the school, and first encountered ideas of non-violence and social action. One event in particular involves Bond, a varsity athlete, going to Philadelphia with his white girlfriend while wearing George School apparel. Upon returning he was reprimanded by the dean. George School has claimed it was based on a policy of not wearing George School insignia apparel off-campus, but Bond believed it was based on racism and "That was just like somebody stopping you and slapping you across the face."
Eric Curtis, an Englishman and a former faculty member at Earlham College, was brought in to be the headmaster after McFeely, serving from 1967 (there was an interim head for 1966–67) until 1979. He oversaw a tumultuous time of change in the social relationships within the school, as assertive students and younger faculty battled older faculty and administrators (and the George School Committee) over a variety of procedures. The two major new buildings in his time were the Science Center and the Sports Center.
David Bourns was head of school from 1979 to 2001, when he left to head the Paul Cuffee charter school in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
. His time began as a kind of recentering after the tumult of the previous decade. New emphasis on academic rigor was enforced, along with more focused activism: the school built an Alternative Energy Center in the mid-1980s, and for several years hosted a regional "Peace Fair." He was succeeded by Nancy Starmer, the first non-member of the Society of Friends to head the school.
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 the single largest gift to an existing private school in U.S. history. The gift has its origins with billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often introduced as "legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is...
. Buffett was a student of Anderson's father, David Dodd
David Dodd
David LeFevre Dodd was an American educator, financial analyst, author, economist, professional investor, and in his student years, a of, and as a postgraduate, close colleague of Benjamin Graham at Columbia Business School.The Wall Street Crash of 1929 almost wiped out Graham, who had started...
, an economist and professor at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
School of Business. Dodd became an early investor in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The company averaged an annual growth in book value of 20.3% to its shareholders for the last 44 years,...
. 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." Ms. Dodd Anderson, Mr. Buffet, and Mollie Dodd Anderson, granddaughter of Barbara Dodd Anderson were present for the dedication of the new LEED Gold Certified Learning Commons and Mollie Dodd Anderson Library on October 17, 2009.
Campus location and geography
Although its mailing address is Newtown, Pennsylvania, only a small part of its campus is in Newtown TownshipNewtown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Newtown Township is a township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 19,299 at the 2010 census.-History:Newtown Township traces its roots back to William Penn, who purchased from the Lenni Lenape Indians in 1683. He named this land my "New Township", which gradually...
. The bulk of the campus is in Middletown Township
Middletown Township, Pennsylvania
Middletown Township is the name of some places in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania:*Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania*Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania*Middletown Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania...
. Both towns are in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Bucks County, Pennsylvania
- Industry and commerce :The boroughs of Bristol and Morrisville were prominent industrial centers along the Northeast Corridor during World War II. Suburban development accelerated in Lower Bucks in the 1950s with the opening of Levittown, Pennsylvania, the second such "Levittown" designed by...
.
Its property is now divided by the Route 332
Pennsylvania Route 332
Pennsylvania Route 332 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route runs from Pennsylvania Route 263 in Hatboro, Montgomery County east to Pennsylvania Route 32 in Yardley, Bucks County.-Route description:...
/Route 413
Pennsylvania Route 413
Pennsylvania Route 413 is a long, north–south state highway running from the PA/NJ state line on the Burlington-Bristol Bridge to PA 611 in Bedminster Township in Bucks County...
Newtown bypass, and the main entrance is on Route 413 south of the bypass.
The campus is adjacent to Neshaminy Creek
Neshaminy Creek
Neshaminy Creek is a stream that runs southeast through Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Neshaminy Creek proper rises south of the borough of Chalfont, where North Branch Neshaminy Creek and West Branch Neshaminy Creek meet. Neshaminy Creek flows lastly between Bristol Township and Bensalem Township...
, and Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek
Newtown Creek is a estuary that forms part of the border between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, in New York City, New York, United States. It derives its name from New Town , which was the name for the Dutch and British settlement in what is now Elmhurst, Queens...
cuts through the property. Both rivers are in the less-developed western part of the campus. A campus map is available here
The Pennswood retirement community and Newtown Friends School
Newtown Friends School
Newtown Friends School is a coeducational prekindergarten through eighth grade Quaker independent school founded in 1948 and located in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Though its name and address indicate it is in Newtown Township, it is physically located in Middletown Township...
, also Quaker institutions, are on George School land and adjacent to the campus.
George School Station
When founded, George School was quite isolated. It had its own train stationGeorge School (SEPTA station)
George School is a closed railroad station located along SEPTA's Fox Chase/Newtown Line located at George School, a private Quaker boarding and day high school in Middletown, Pennsylvania.-History:...
on the Reading Railroad's Newtown line (later the Fox Chase Line
Fox Chase Line
The Fox Chase Line is a route of the SEPTA Regional Rail system.Originally known as the Fox Chase/Newtown Branch, service was truncated in January 1983 from Newtown to its current terminus in Philadelphia at Fox Chase due to unreliable train equipment and low ridership...
), and its own post office
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
branch. Commuter train service was suspended on January 14, 1983.
Meetinghouse
The campus meetinghouse was originally the 12th Street Meetinghouse in Philadelphia, built in 1812, and incorporating materials dating back as early as 1755. When the 12th Street Meeting of the Society of Friends combined with Race Street Meeting in 1956 to form Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, the building became redundant. The land was sold, and the building was saved from demolition by it being dismantled and rebuilt in 1972–1974 in its present location.Quaker influences
George School is governed by the George School Committee, which is self-perpetuating by approval of the Philadelphia Yearly MeetingPhiladelphia Yearly Meeting
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, or simply Philadelphia Yearly Meeting or PYM, is the central organizing body for Quaker meetings in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, area....
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 Essentials of a Friends Community in the student's first year, followed by two terms of Faith Traditions, an in-depth World Religions course. Sophomore year students take a year-long "Health and the Human Spirit" class, 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
Meeting for worship
A meeting for worship is a practice of the Religious Society of Friends in many ways comparable to a church service. These services have a wide variety of forms, creating a spectrum from typical Protestant liturgy to silent waiting for the Spirit .A Meeting for Worship may start with a query;...
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 had 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 usually refer to one another on a first-name basis.
Academics
George School offers a college-preparatory course of study. To graduate, students must complete 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, 3 years of history, 3 years of science, 3 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
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, Calculus
Calculus
Calculus is a branch of mathematics focused on limits, functions, derivatives, integrals, and infinite series. This subject constitutes a major part of modern mathematics education. It has two major branches, differential calculus and integral calculus, which are related by the fundamental theorem...
(AB and BC), English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, U.S. History, Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, Statistics and the school's four foreign languages: French, Spanish, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and Chinese. Additionally, students in the Portfolio Preparation class have been known to submit their work for the Art AP.
Students must take four full years of art. George school offers classes in
ceramics
Ceramics (art)
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...
(mostly pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
), chorus
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...
, dance, digital imaging
Digital imaging
Digital imaging or digital image acquisition is the creation of digital images, typically from a physical scene. The term is often assumed to imply or include the processing, compression, storage, printing, and display of such images...
, drama, music seminar
Seminar
Seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is...
, newspaper
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
(The Curious George, formerly The George School News), painting and drawing, photography, stagecraft
Stagecraft
Stagecraft is a generic term referring to the technical aspects of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes, but is not limited to, constructing and rigging scenery, hanging and focusing of lighting, design and procurement of costumes, makeup, procurement of props, stage management, and...
, video production
Video production
Video production is videography, the process of capturing moving images on electronic media even streaming media. The term includes methods of production and post-production...
, orchestra, woodworking
Woodworking
Woodworking is the process of building, making or carving something using wood.-History:Along with stone, mud, and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials worked by early humans. Microwear analysis of the Mousterian stone tools used by the Neanderthals show that many were used to work wood...
(mostly carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
), and yearbook
Yearbook
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a book to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school or a book published annually. Virtually all American, Australian and Canadian high schools, most colleges and many elementary and middle schools publish yearbooks...
. 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.
Service
All George School students are required to complete a 65-hour community serviceCommunity service
Community service is donated service or activity that is performed by someone or a group of people for the benefit of the public or its institutions....
project before they graduate. Students work on projects and in programs that reflect Friends' practices. Projects must be grounded in one-on-one contact with communities and persons who are disempowered because of social, racial, economic, or health factors. These projects include intense, two-week experiences in school-sponsored, domestic or international work camps; once-a-week experiences that extend throughout the school year; and preapproved independent projects. Service projects may be completed during the school year or vacation time, any time after the completion of a student's sophomore year.
George School's work-camps began after the Second World War, with students traveling to help those in need both domestically and internationally. Recent work camps and service trips include India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
; Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
; Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
; Boston, Massachusetts; Coastal Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
; Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and The Palestinian territories; France; South Africa; Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
; New Orleans, Louisiana; Americus, Georgia
Americus, Georgia
-Early years:Americus, Georgia was named and chartered by Sen. Lovett B. Smith in 1832.For its first two decades, Americus was a small courthouse town. The arrival of the railroad in 1854 and, three decades later, local attorney Samuel H. Hawkins' construction of the only privately financed...
; South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
; Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...
; Washington, D.C.; West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
; South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
; and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
While more than half of the students at George School are on significant financial aid, proportionally few of those students can afford to go on international service trips as the maximum scholarship offered on most trips amounts to roughly half of the total costs, which range from $2000 to over $5000.
Athletics
Students are almost always required to play a competitive sport or participate in a physical educationPhysical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
program. Starting in the 1996/97 school year, certain fully scheduled students have been permitted to take one trimester with no athletics. Still, underclassmen must play two interscholastic competitive sports and juniors and seniors must play one:
- Fall: cross countryCross country runningCross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...
, equestrianEquestrianismEquestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
, field hockeyField hockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, footballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, cheerleadingCheerleadingCheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
(football), soccer, and tennis (girls) - Winter: basketball, cheerleading (basketball), swimming, winter trackAthletics (track and field)Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
, volleyball, and wrestlingScholastic wrestlingScholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently... - Spring: baseball, equestrianEquestrianismEquestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
, golf, lacrosseLacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
, tennis (boys), and track and field
Where possible, George School competes in the Friends School League
Friends School League
The Friends' School League is an athletic league made up of student athletes from several private high schools in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As the league's name suggests, it consists primarily of Quaker schools, though in recent years several other schools have become...
, but in certain sports, such as equestrian, football, and swimming, this is not possible due to the small number of league members that also participate.
There is an annual competition with Westtown
Westtown School
Westtown School is a coeducational, college preparatory day and boarding school for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.-About Westtown School:...
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 once had 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 Georgian is the alumni newspaper that is circulated to alums, parents, and faculty.
- Argo is a student-produced literary and arts magazine.
- 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.Both student- and department-produced theater productions are performed in Walton Center on the main stage or the smaller green room stage. Productions range from conventional high school productions, such as Guys and Dolls to more controversial pieces such as the Laramie Project. George School's dance classes perform in the annual Dance Eclectic, a combination of student and faculty-created choreography. The George School Community Chorus includes a mixture of students and adults, and offers an annual winter concert. George School's Musical Theater course performs a musical in Walton Auditorium in the spring or winter term.
Symbols and logos
- The school's seal is an oil lampOil lampAn oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and is continued to this day....
with the inscription "Mind the light," referring to the Quaker conception of God's presence within all people as the inner lightInner lightInner Light is a concept which many Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends, use to express their conscience, faith and beliefs. Each Quaker has a different idea of what they mean by "inner light", and this also varies internationally between Yearly Meetings, but the idea is often...
. - 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 current logo, adopted in 2000, replaced a more stylized, "bare branch" logo adopted in the late 1970s.
- 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 mascotMascotThe term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
is a cougar, portrayed by one of the cheerleadersCheerleadingCheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
.
Notable alumni
- Donzaleigh AbernathyDonzaleigh AbernathyDonzaleigh Abernathy is an American actress, producer, director and writer.-Filmography:*Murder in Mississippi -- Sue Brown*Ghost Dad -- E.R...
, actress, daughter of Rev. Ralph Abernathy - Edward G. Biester, Jr.Edward G. Biester, Jr.Edward George Biester, Jr. is a retired Republican politician and judge who served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania, from 1967 to 1977....
, U.S. Congressperson - Julian BondJulian BondHorace Julian Bond , known as Julian Bond, is an American social activist and leader in the American civil rights movement, politician, professor, and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating...
, '57, civil rights leader and chairman of the NAACP - Lael BrainardLael BrainardLael Brainard is the United States Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs in the administration of President Barack Obama. She previously was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution from 2001 to 2009, and served as the vice president and director of the Global Economy and...
, '79, Bernard L. Schwartz Chair in International Economics at the Brookings Institution - Mario CapecchiMario CapecchiMario Renato Capecchi is an Italian-born American molecular geneticist and a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a method for introducing homologous recombination in mice employing embryonic stem cells, with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies...
, '56, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine - Kathleen Neal CleaverKathleen Neal CleaverKathleen Neal Cleaver is an American professor of law, known for her involvement with the Black Panther Party.- Early life :...
, Black Panthers leader, wife of Eldridge Cleaver - Ennis CosbyEnnis CosbyEnnis William "The Music" Cosby was the son of comedian-actor Bill Cosby and Camille Cosby. He was murdered in 1997 on Skirball Center Drive, an access road of Los Angeles' 405 Freeway by Mikhail Markhasev.-Life:...
, son of Bill Cosby - Blythe DannerBlythe DannerBlythe Katherine Danner is an American actress. She is the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow.-Early life:...
, '60, actress, mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow - Kevin DavisKevin DavisKevin Davis may refer to:* Blue Angels pilot killed in the 2007 Blue Angels South Carolina crash* Kevin Davis, engineer in the recording industry * Kevin Davis , a character in the US television soap opera As The World Turns...
, actor, one of the Black Panthers in the film Forrest Gump - Keir DulleaKeir DulleaKeir Dullea is an American actor best known for the character of astronaut David Bowman, whom he portrayed in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and in 1984's 2010: The Year We Make Contact...
, '54, actor - Howard Thomas Hallowell, Sr., founder of the Standard Pressed Steel Company (now SPS Technologies, Inc.), after whom the campus's Hallowell Arts Center is named
- James HammersteinJames HammersteinJames Hammerstein was an American theatre director and producer. He was the son of Oscar Hammerstein II and his wife Dorothy ....
, Broadway director and producer - Jessica HelfandJessica HelfandJessica Helfand is an author, columnist and lecturer on graphic design. She is the partner of William Drenttel of Winterhouse Studios, Winterhouse Editions and Winterhouse Institute located in Falls Village, Connecticut. She is a critic in graphic design at Yale University, where she earned her...
, author, columnist, and lecturer on graphic design - Gwendolyn HolbrowGwendolyn HolbrowGwendolyn Holbrow , is an American artist. Primarily a sculptor, she works in a variety of media and addresses an eclectic array of topics, with exploration of boundaries a recurring theme: between the tangible and intangible worlds; between the genders; between the individual and society...
, '75, artist - Darlington HoopesDarlington HoopesDarlington Hoopes was the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States in the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections.-Early years:...
, politician, Socialist Party of AmericaSocialist Party of AmericaThe Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
candidate for U.S. president in 1952 and 1956 - Stephen LangStephen Lang (actor)Stephen Lang is an American actor and playwright. He started in theatre on Broadway but is well known for his film portrayals of Stonewall Jackson in Gods and Generals and George Pickett in Gettysburg , as well as for his 2009 roles as Colonel Miles Quaritch in Avatar and as Texan lawman Charles...
, actor - J. Howard MarshallJ. Howard MarshallJames Howard Marshall II was an American business magnate, university professor, attorney, and federal government official...
, businessman and husband of Anna Nicole Smith - Robert MillsRobert Mills (physicist)Robert L. Mills was a physicist, specializing in quantum field theory, the theory of alloys, and many-body theory. While sharing an office at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in 1954, Chen Ning Yang and Mills proposed a tensor equation for what are now called Yang-Mills fields...
, '44, physicist - Meredith MonkMeredith MonkMeredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...
, dancer, composer, and choreographer - Roy MottahedehRoy MottahedehRoy Parviz Mottahedeh is a professor of pre-modern social and intellectual history of the Islamic Middle East at Harvard University and expert on Iranian culture.-Life:...
, '57, Iranian/Middle Eastern scholar, 1982 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship - George SegalGeorge SegalGeorge Segal is an American film, stage and television actor.-Early life:George Segal, Jr. was born in 1934 Great Neck, Long Island, New York, the son of Fannie Blanche and George Segal, Sr. He was educated at George School, a private Quaker preparatory boarding school near Newtown, Bucks County,...
, actor - Andrew ScheinmanAndrew ScheinmanAndrew Scheinman is a film and television producer, as well as a film director and screenwriter. Before he got his start in entertainment, he worked as a tennis pro, as well as earning a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1973...
, '66, film maker, cofounder of Castle Rock Entertainment - Stephen SondheimStephen SondheimStephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...
, '46, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer/lyricist - Henry S. TaylorHenry S. TaylorHenry S. Taylor is a Pulitzer Prize winning American poet and author of over 15 books of poetry.Taylor was born on 21 June 1942 in rural Loudoun County, Virginia, where he was raised as a Quaker. He went to high school at George School in Newtown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of...
, '60, Pulitzer Prize–winning poet - John Templeton, JrJohn Templeton, JrJohn Marks Templeton, Jr. is the elder son of the stock investor, businessman and philanthropist John Templeton and serves as the Chairman and President of the John Templeton Foundation....
, '58, philanthropist, president of the Templeton Foundation - Dawn Timmeney, news anchor for WCAU TV in Philadelphia
- Charles WaltonCharles Walton (inventor)Charles Walton is best known as the first patent holder for the RFID device. Many individuals contributed to the invention of the RFID, but Walton was awarded ten patents in all for various RFID-related devices, including his key 1973 design for a "Portable radio frequency emitting identifier"...
, '39, holder of the first patent for RFID technology - Alex WestermanAlex WestermanAlexander Westerman is a United States of America Creative Director. He began his career as an Art Director having studied at Ithaca College and New York University. Westerman is currently the Creative Director for Mattel Digital and Mattel Marketing & Communications.-Career:Alex Westerman...
, Creative Director for MattelMattelMattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from... - Kenneth Geddes Wilson, '52, winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physics