Lawrenceville School

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The Lawrenceville School
Image:Lawrenceville_Seal.jpg
Virtus Semper Viridus
"Virtue Always Green"
Established 1810
School type Private, Boarding
Religious affiliation none, however the school requires its students to attend two religious services per term
Headmaster Elizabeth A. Duffy
Location Lawrenceville, NJ, USA
Campus 700 acres
Enrollment 804 total
549 boarding
255 day
Faculty 142
Average class size 12
Student:teacher
ratio		 6:1
Average SAT
scores (2006)		 650 verbal
680 math 650 writing
Athletics 21 Interscholastic Sports
Color(s) Red/Black
Mascot Big Red
Conference Mid Atlantic Prep League

The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational, independent boarding school for grades 9-12 located on 700 acres in the historic community of Lawrenceville, in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, five miles southwest of Princeton. Today, the School enrolls 800 boarding and day students, who come from 34 states and 29 countries. Its endowment stands at $225 million (as of 2005), or nearly $300,000 per student. Lawrenceville received 1,643 formal applications for entrance in fall 2006, of which only 348 - or 21% - were accepted.

Contents

[edit] History

One of the oldest prep schools in the U.S., Lawrenceville was founded in 1810 as the Maidenhead Academy. As early as 1828, the school attracted students from Cuba and England, as well as from the Choctaw Nations. It went by several subsequent names, including the Lawrenceville Classical and Commercial High School, the Lawrenceville Academy, and the Lawrenceville Classical Academy, before the school's current name, "The Lawrenceville School," was set during its refounding in 1883.

In 1951, a group of educators from Phillips Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Lawrenceville, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University convened to examine the best use of the final two years of high school and the first two years of college. This committee published a final report, General Education in School and College, through Harvard University Press in 1952, which subsequently led to the establishment of the Advanced Placement Program (the AP Exams).

Lawrenceville was featured in a number of novels by Owen Johnson, class of 1895, notably The Prodigious Hickey, The Tennessee Shad, and The Varmint (1910). The Varmint, which recounts the school years of the fictional character Dink Stover, was made into the 1950 motion picture The Happy Years which starred Leo G. Carroll and Dean Stockwell and was filmed on the Lawrenceville campus. A 1992 PBS miniseries was based on his Lawrenceville tales.

In 1959, Fidel Castro spoke at the School in the Edith Memorial Chapel. Recent speakers have included boxer Muhammad Ali, legal scholar Derrick Bell, poet Billy Collins, playwright Christopher Durang, historians Niall Ferguson and David Hackett Fischer, the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, poet Seamus Heaney, political analyst Ariana Huffington, novelist Chang-rae Lee, photographer Andres Serrano, poet Mark Strand, writer Andrew Sullivan, politician Lowell Weicker, and philosopher Cornel West.

Among Lawrenceville's prominent teachers over the years have been Thornton Wilder, who taught French at the School in the 1920s; R. Inslee Clark, Jr., who revolutionized Ivy League admissions at Yale in the 1960s; and Thomas H. Johnson, a widely-published authority on Emily Dickinson. Faculty members have gone on to head institutions such as the Horace Mann School, Phillips Exeter Academy, the Groton School, Milton Academy, Westminster School, The Peddie School and Governor Dummer Academy.

Lawrenceville was all-male for much of its nearly 200-year history, until Head Master Josiah Bunting III and the board of trustees made the School coeducational in 1987. In 1999, the student body elected a female president, Alexandra Petrone; in 2003, Elizabeth Duffy was appointed the School's first female head master; and in 2005, Sasha-Mae Eccleston, class of 2002, became Lawrenceville's first alumna to win a Rhodes Scholarship.

The School's weekly newspaper, The Lawrence, has been in publication for 127 years. It has won numerous awards for journalistic excellence.

Lawrenceville's student body president for the 2006-2007 year is Geer LeBoutillier, from Larchmont, NY.

Lawrenceville will celebrate its bicentennial in 2010.

[edit] Educational program

Among Lawrenceville's most distinctive features is its House system common to British boarding schools. Students reside in three distinct groups of Houses (or dorms), where they live with faculty members in a family-like setting: the Lower School, the Circle and Crescent Houses, and the Upper School. Freshmen, or 9th grade IInd formers (the School stopped accepting 8th grade Ist formers in 1997), stay in two dorms, one for boys (Raymond) and one for girls (Dawes). For their sophomore IIIrd and IVth form year, students are placed either into the Circle (for boys) or the Crescent (for girls) Houses. The "Circle Houses" are named for their location on a landscaped circle designed by the 19th-century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who is most famous for designing New York City's Central Park. The Circle is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The "Crescent Houses" are similarly named after the layout of the buildings. Circle/Crescent houses, which field intramural sports teams, have their own traditions, and participate in friendly, though intense, competition. Circle houses are Kennedy, Hamill, Dickinson, Woodhull, Griswold and Cleve. Crescent houses are McClellan, Stanley, Stephens, and Kirby. Plans to build a new Crescent house, to be called Carter, are underway. Seniors (the Vth Form) live in separate dormitories off the Circle and Crescent. Some seniors live as prefects with underclassmen.

Like the House system, the Harkness table is a hallmark of the School. In the Harkness method, teachers and students engage in Socratic, give-and-take discussions around large, wooden oval tables, which take the place of individual desks.

[edit] The Performing Arts
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The performing arts have earned an integral and vibrant place in the life of The Lawrenceville School.

Musical Offerings

Out of an enrollment of 804, approximately 250 students are enrolled in the thriving and exponentially growing Private Instruction Program. Lessons are given on almost any instrument, including all the orchestral and jazz instruments, guitar (all styles), organ, piano (jazz and classical), voice, mandolin, harmonica, etc. The faculty for this program come from Philadelphia, New York and the local Princeton area and are all distinguished in their respective fields. Twice a year they participate in a faculty concert given so students are able to observe their teachers “doing” as well as teaching.

The performing ensembles are rich and varied. The flagships ensembles are The Lawrentians, a chamber choir of 25 voices, and The Collegium Lawrenceville, a chamber orchestra of 24 players. The larger ensembles consist of The Lawrenceville School Orchestra, The Lawrenceville Chorus and the Second Form Choir. Jazz is a singular highlight of the ensembles program as well, offering the Jazz Lab Band, and as the vehicle for advanced study of the art form, students can also audition for and play in the Jazz Ensemble. All ensembles except the School Choir and Second Form Choir require auditions. Depending on the demand and number of players, the school occasionally fields a Chamber Orchestra for those who are relatively new in the exploration of their instruments.

Students are the sole focus of the music program, and there are numerous opportunities for performance throughout a busy and engaging year. One of the most popular concerts are the Midday Music concerts held on a Thursday in each month at 12:30 in the Atrium

Image:CMC_atrium_smaller.JPG

of the Juliet Lyell Staunton Clark Music Center:

Image:clarke music building 1.jpg

Twice a year, on a Sunday in February and on a Sunday in May, four hours' worth of Student Recitals on each day feature those who have studied in the Private Instruction Program. In January, the music program presents each of its ensembles as they all participate in the Winter Gathering Concert. Later in the spring, the Jazz Festival, Choral Concert and Spring Instrumental Concert are presented in the busy month of April. Student groups, notably three a capella choral groups (two all-female and one all-male) as well as a student bluegrass band, perform throughout the year, especially at the two "Allegro Shows", an event sponsored and run by the Allegro Club (see below) - an evening of popular music by any student (by audition) and offered to the school community. Of special note are two highlights: in December, the Candlelight Choral Concert is offered by The Lawrentians, and in the early spring, the Collegium Lawrenceville offers a Concerto Concert featuring several of the most advanced instrumentalists performing movements of concertos they have prepared especially for this concert. Finally, the spring also sees an innovative art experience whereby students in the Electronic Composition classes present their recorded work as two or three students from the Visual Arts program create works in their favorite media while the music is playing, using that music partly as inspiration for their spontaneous creations.

Despite that overflowing cornucopia of activity, the busiest season is the fall, when the entire department of performing arts collaborates on the Fall Musical. The production is comprehensive: costumes, sets, lighting, staging, singing, dancing, acting and a full pit orchestra of student instrumentalists working next to professional musicians. The musical is offered on Parents Weekend in October. The entire performing arts faculty directs the production in their respective areas, and typically 10 percent of the students at Lawrenceville are engaged in the production in some capacity.

Of particular note is the fact that ensembles travel regularly. The inaugural concert tour was during Spring Break of 2006. The Lawrentians, under their music director, Paul Summerlin, Director of Vocal Studies and Music Technology, toured Salzburg, Austria, Bamberg, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic, performing concerts in each city. Over Spring Break of 2007, Director of Instrumental Studies, Dr. Kevin Smith, will conduct the Collegium Lawrenceville and the Lawrenceville School Orchestra, bringing along the Jazz Ensemble, led by Mr. Steve Rozek (private instructor in saxophone and clarinet and director of both the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band), on a 13 day concert tour of Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Course offerings are exceptional as befits an exceptional institution of learning. The entry-level course is Foundations of Music. Students can then adopt one of either two tracks to satisfy the arts requirements, should they choose to do so with music courses. Following Foundations of Music, they may elect the course "Electronic Music" (in the state-of-the-art Electronic Music Lab:)

Image:Elec_lab_smaller.JPG

followed by "Modern Music Production and Analysis."

The second path again follows the Foundations of Music course: students can elect "Overview of Western Music" followed by either "The Symphony’s Development: From Bach to Stravinsky," or the college-level analysis- and performance-intensive course, "Chamber Music."

The music program uses the Harkness Table system of instruction in the Clark Music Center as well:

Image:Harkness_smaller.JPG

The performing arts department also has two student-staffed and -run groups, the Periwig Club, for theater, and the Allegro Club, for music. These groups help with the smooth running of productions, assist faculty by executing various aspects of those productions, and provide students with an interesting, enjoyable and hands-on experience in the running of concerts, club meetings and other club activities.

Theatre

Coming soon!

Dance

Coming soon!

[edit] Athletics

Lawrenceville's arch-rival in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League is The Hill School of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. On the first or second weekend of November during "Hill Weekend," the two schools celebrate the nation's third oldest high school football rivalry and fifth oldest school rivalry in the nation, dating back to the 1890's. Also famous, is the annual golf competition for the Crooked Stick, similar in format to the Ryder Cup..

Lawrenceville competes with other schools in baseball, basketball, crew, cross-country, diving, fencing, field hockey, football, golf, hockey, indoor and outdoor track, lacrosse, soccer, softball, squash, swimming, tennis, volleyball, water polo, and wrestling. In addition, the School offers a variety of intramural sports, including Ultimate (sport) for the girls' Crescent Houses and 8-man tackle football for boys' Circle Houses.

In 2006, McClellan became the first team to win the Golden Disc, the Ultimate (sport) Championship trophy.

Lawrenceville's House Football League is the oldest active football league in America. Teams compete against each other to battle for the pride of their house. Traditions abound, including the yearly rivalry game between the Hamill and Kennedy houses referred to as "The Crutch Game," first played in 1947. The game is fought for the possession of a historical crutch made of wood. A bit of Lawrenceville football lore is recounted in the book Football Days, Memories of the Game and of the Men Behind the Ball by William H. Edwards, a graduate of Lawrenceville. The book describes the author's time as a member of the Lawrenceville football team, and paints a vivid picture of "the vital power of the collegial spirit."

On November 6, 2005, the Lawrenceville Varsity Field Hockey team defeated Stuart Country Day School 2-1 to capture their third straight Prep A State Championship. On November 5, 2006, the Field Hockey team defeated Stuart Country Day School 1-0 to capture their fourth straight Prep A State Championship.

On February 12, 2006, the Lawrenceville Varsity Boys' Squash team won Nationals for the third year in a row.

On May 18, 2006, the Lawrenceville Varsity Baseball Team won the New Jersey State Prep A Championship over Peddie School in a double header (14-0 and 6-1).

In 2006, the Dickinson House won the Foresman Trophy, annually awarded to the most athletically outstanding boys' house. The Kirby House won the Dresdner Cup, which is the female equivalent to the Foresman.

In 2006, Lawrenceville graduate Joakim Noah was a member of the University of Florida Gators' NCAA-championship winning basketball team. Noah was voted the most valuable player of the tournament.

[edit] Facilities

Memorial Hall, a classroom building on the campus of The Lawrenceville School
Memorial Hall, a classroom building on the campus of The Lawrenceville School

On Lawrenceville's 700-acre campus are thirty-four major buildings, including the Bunn Library (with space for 100,000 volumes). Peabody and Stearns designed the original campus of the school, which includes Memorial Hall, a gymnasium, the headmaster’s house and five cottage-style residences, and provided future plans for the chapel.[1]

Opened in 1996, the Bunn Library offers more than 50,000 books, computer research facilities, an electronic classroom, study areas and an archives. Other campus highlights include a 56,000-square-foot science building (opened in spring 1998), a visual arts center (opened in fall 1998), a history center (reopened in fall 1999), and a music center (opened in fall 2000).

In the main arena of the Edward J. Lavino Field House are a permanent banked 200-meter track and three tennis/basketball/volleyball courts. Two additional hardwood basketball courts, a six-lane swimming pool, an indoor ice-hockey rink, a wrestling room, two fitness centers with a full-time strength and conditioning coach, a training-wellness facility are housed in the wings of the building as well as a new squash court facility, hosting ten new internationally zoned courts, which opened in 2003.

Lawrenceville has eighteen athletics fields, a nine-hole golf course, twelve outdoor tennis courts, a ¼-mile all-weather track, a boathouse, and a ropes and mountaineering course. During the summer, Lawrenceville is a popular site for sports-specific camps for youths, as well as several academic programs for students and teachers.

[edit] Affiliations

As discussed above, Lawrenceville athletics compete in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League.

Lawrenceville is part of an organization known as The Ten Schools Admissions Organization. This organization was founded more than forty years ago on the basis of a number of common goals and traditions. Member schools include Lawrenceville, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Hill School, The Taft School, The Hotchkiss School, St. Paul's School, Loomis Chaffee, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Phillips Academy Andover.

Lawrenceville is affiliated with The Island School - Cape Eleuthera, The Bahamas

[edit] Notable Lawrentians

This section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since December 2006.

The following are some notable alumni of the Lawrenceville School. Winners of the Lawrenceville Medal (also called the Aldo Leopold Medal in honor of the 1905 graduate), are indicated in bold type[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.peabodyandstearns.com/schools1.html
  2. ^ http://www2.lawrenceville.org/alumni/association/recognition.asp accessed 5 December 2006

[edit] External links

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