MacDuffie School

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BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MACDUFFIE SCHOOL John and Abby MacDuffie founded The MacDuffie School in 1890 as a school for girls. Harvard and Radcliffe graduates respectively, they envisioned a school that would provide young women the same access to excellence in education they had experienced. Committed to furthering recent reforms in the education of women, the MacDuffies established their School as a model for other schools. Their commitment to education for girls did not prevent the School from running a co-educational day school for several decades early in the century. By the mid-1920s, Dr. and Mrs. MacDuffie had made an excellent beginning: MacDuffie enjoyed a strong academic reputation. In 1936 the MacDuffies turned the leadership of the School over to their son, Malcolm. At the beginning of World War II, Ralph D. and Cleminette Downing Rutenber became Head and Associate Head of MacDuffie. Dr. Rutenber's tenure as headmaster (1941-1972) was long and fruitful. MacDuffie's reputation increased in the Springfield area and extended across the nation and abroad. From 1956-1968, it acquired the large homes and athletic fields on Ames Hill Drive and built Rutenber Hall (the School’s main classroom facility) and Downing Gymnasium. By 1978, MacDuffie owned all the buildings on Ames Hill Drive, constituting its present secluded, unified 15-acre campus. The School enjoyed its largest enrollments in the 1960s and 70s, reaching 360 boarding and day students from all over the U.S. and abroad. A stress on character development, through the School’s self-help program, and the arts enhanced the traditional liberal arts curriculum, with its emphasis on writing and clear thinking. Following the Rutenbers' retirement in 1972, the ensuing Heads continued to strengthen the School’s academic and co-curricular programs and to increase the diversity of the student body. In 1983 the School purchased the Springfield Red Cross building on Maple Street, which has been used as an independent elementary school and today as an arts building. Michael L. Cornog was head from 1988 until 1999. During his tenure, MacDuffie added a sixth grade and created a fully integrated Middle School curriculum taught by teams of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers. This curriculum is exceptionally meaningful and appropriate to the needs of Middle School children. In 1990-91, the year of the MacDuffie Centennial, the School again admitted young men, but this time to the day-school program. In 1992, the traditional girls’ boarding program became the Ames Hill program primarily for international students who reside with house parents in the former dorms, once again family homes. Young men now represent nearly fifty percent of the total MacDuffie student body. Since July 1999, Kathryn Post Gibson has been Head of School. Mrs. Gibson began her career as a teacher of Russian and French at the Albany Academy for Girls and then spent more than twenty years in higher education administration at The University at Albany and Springfield College and in government service at the National Endowment for the Humanities. The parent of a MacDuffie alumna of the class of 2001 and a Trustee from 1997-1999, Mrs. Gibson is dedicated to advancing the School’s academic, athletic, and arts programs. She is actively seeking resources to enhance the School’s technological and instructional resources and historic facilities, to provide faculty with professional opportunities for growth, and to enhance the School’s reputation locally and internationally. Under her leadership, the School completed a three-phase Technology Plan in 2003 and expanded its perimeter to include practice fields on Pine Street and the residence at 334 Maple. Throughout its history, MacDuffie has adapted to the circumstances of the day: changing economic times, educational needs, and social pressures. Through its many changes, the School has remained committed to its mission of providing young scholars with strong academic challenges in a community based on diversity and individual respect.

MISSION STATEMENT The MacDuffie School is a rigorous college preparatory School whose mission is to foster in all students the intellectual habits of mind, high ethical standards, and respect for diversity required for becoming effective individuals in their personal and work lives and moral and responsible participants in the world beyond.

EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY The MacDuffie School is a co-educational, independent day school for students in grades six through twelve, with a boarding program primarily for international students in the Upper School. The atmosphere of this urban school, with its rich diversity, is both supportive and challenging. The School prepares its students for college and for productive lives in the modern world. Each student is expected to develop the skills needed for lifelong learning and responsible citizenship.

MacDuffie seeks students who are academically capable and who demonstrate a willingness and eagerness to learn and to extend themselves. The Faculty engages students in an intensive learning process and meets individual students’ needs in creative ways, mindful of their different learning styles. The School equips its students with the skills to analyze problems logically and creatively, to develop appropriate problem-solving strategies, and to apply those strategies confidently and effectively. MacDuffie also creates fertile ground for exploring artistic and athletic interests. Students develop the ability to communicate well, verbally and in writing, recognizing that genuine communication involves learning to question, analyze, and probe in the pursuit of understanding.

A small and cohesive community of 230 students, MacDuffie instills in its young women and men the importance of working together to achieve both individual and institutional goals and to do so in ways that are honestly respectful of the needs, values, and rights of each other, the environment, and the world in which we live.

THE MACDUFFIE CIRCLE In 2004-2005, MacDuffie faculty and staff, parents, students, board members, alumni and friends studied those qualities that are at the School’s core and identified the values that exemplify these core qualities. MacDuffie’s logo is a circle, with “veritas” or truth in the center. Building on the word “circle,” we assigned a key value to each letter, thus representing graphically and symbolically the essential characteristics of a MacDuffie education: Community, Integrity, Respect, Creativity, Leadership, and Excellence. Each and every member of the MacDuffie community strives to meet the highest standards and expectations that each of these concepts denotes.

NON-DISCRIMINATION STATEMENT The MacDuffie School does not discriminate in violation of the law on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational and admissions policies, scholarships, and other School-administered programs.