| Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 1714 21st Street Santa Monica, California |
|
| Information | |
| Opened | 1971 |
| Founder | Paul Cummins |
| Head of school | Bob Riddle |
| Grades | K-12 |
| Number of students | 1,139 |
| School Color(s) | Red, White, and Blue |
| Newspaper | 'Crossfire' |
| Yearbook | Crossroads Yearbook |
| Website | http://www.xrds.org/ |
Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences is a K-12 independent, college preparatory school in Santa Monica, California, United States. The school is a member of the G20 Schools Group.
Contents |
The school was founded in 1971 by Paul Cummins (an educator) as an effort in progressive private education. Dr. Cummins went on to found New Roads School in Santa Monica, California. Although the founders, and many of the school's original students, came from the former St. Augustine By-the-Sea Episcopal Day School in Santa Monica, Crossroads School has always been a secular institution. Crossroads started with three rooms in a Baptist church offering grades seven and eight, and an initial enrollment of just over 30 students.[1] The name Crossroads was suggested by Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken,” in which Frost writes:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.[2]
The 2004 book Hollywood Interrupted, by Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner (ISBN 0-471-45051-0), dedicated a large section to Crossroads; it depicted the school (and the celebrities who send their children there) in a negative light. The article focused mainly on a handful of high-profile parents and "drug problems" stemming from the 1980s.[1] The school was also featured in a May 2005 issue of Vanity Fair; like Breitbart's book, it also focused on the school's celebrity clientele.[1]