Metairie Park Country Day School
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Metairie Park Country Day School, located in Metairie, Louisiana, USA, was founded in 1929 by a group of families who wanted an alternative to the traditional public, private and parochial schooling available in the New Orleans area. Several of the founding families have grandchildren at the School today, and the Stern family - also credited with the founding or advancement of Newcomb Nursery School and Dillard University - was instrumental in luring the founding head, Ralph Boothby from Hudson, Ohio, where he had briefly headed a school and begun to apply (as he had as head of the Department of Education at Antioch College) the progressive principles that were to be a hallmark of his new school.
The first young classes assembled in the current administration building, completed just in time to open for the academic year. Since that time the school has evolved into a k-12 institution of 725 students and 100 full- and part-time faculty, with an early childhood program of 85 students added in 1986. Until the 1950s, it also had a small boarding department, which was phased out (as were similar departments at a number of schools during this period). Its founding educational philosophy - defined in the current Mission statement- is probably captured as well as anywhere in Mr. Boothby's original conversation with prospective parents at the founding of the school:
Study of the individual child, and effort to satisfy his or her needs. Freedom to develop naturally, which does not mean license to invade other people's rights. Attention to play and physical development for every child. The utilization of children's interests for educational ends. A large place for beauty in nature, in art, in music. Friendly relationship between pupils and teachers, with teachers functioning as guides rather than taskmasters. Such cooperation between school and home as will make the two, supplementing each other, provide for the whole development of the child. Like many schools, Country Day has gone through a number of changes, some the result of leadership, some of cultural pressure from the external world, some from accumulated innovation on the part of its teachers. Parents have always had a significant role to play in the shaping of the community, and the governance of the School resided in part in a modified "town meeting" that included all parents, until it was assigned to a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees comparable to that of most independent educational institutions. Representatives of the Parents Association and the Dads Club sit on the current Board (and parents also comprise more than seventy-five percent of the Board), as does an elected member of the faculty. Students are now involved in several of the strategic committees of the Board.
As was the case with many Country Day schools, over time Metairie Park Country Day School incorporated much of the more traditional college preparatory model (including AP courses) as its student body sought college placement in an increasingly competitive college marketplace. Throughout its history, it has claimed among its graduates (and its more active parents) many of the more innovative leaders in the Greater New Orleans community. The strength of the bonds among its alumni and alumnae are almost legendary.
Finally, the values of the community are neatly exemplified in the physical form of the campus. Its open walkways (few corridors), main courtyard, and classrooms in the round all invite community members to stroll, to converse, to enjoy the outdoors as well as the interior learning spaces. The campus, unlike most schools in the area, has relatively open boundaries that welcome the neighborhood visitor and ensure, again symbolically, that the School is not cut off from its environment, but is part of it.
Distinguished Alumni:
Jon Michael Schulman Booth Samuels Philip Sherman
