The Classic Era (1850s -1950s)
The classic era of American boarding schools began with the founding of such schools as the Gunnery (CT) in 1850, the Hill School (PA) in1851, and St. Paul’s School (NH) in 1856. The post Civil War era ushered in another phase of industrial expansion and massive wealth accumulation by industrialists. The families of numerous entrepreneurs suddenly became the New Rich, who sought to emulate the lifestyles of the British aristocracy. This led to the founding of several schools modeled after the classic British “public schools” - Eton, Harrow, and Rugby. Many new American boarding schools were up and running by 1899, including many of the famed schools of today – Tabor Academy (MA), Groton School (MA), Westminster School (CT), Saint George’s School (RI), Saint Mark’s School (MA), Thacher School (CA), Choate School (CT), Taft School (CT), Hotchkiss School (CT), Pomfret School (CT), Woodberry Forest School (VA) – sixty two in all. The next decade saw the founding of Berkshire School (MA), Cate School (CA), Kent School (CT), Mercersburg Academy (PA), Middlesex School (MA), and Trinity-Pawling School (NY), along with many others nationwide.
The schools of this era were characterized by single sex enrollment, secluded gated campuses apart from an urban center, a Protestant religious affiliation (usually Episcopalian), elite admissions which focused on upper class white Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs), an emphasis on British sports and British terms (e.g., using the term “forms” instead of “grades’), and the promotion of “character building”. Daily chapel meetings and weekly full church services were mandatory.
The great landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, an Andover graduate, designed several classic prep school campuses during this era, all defined by their central circles around which the student houses/dorms and academic building were grouped. The circles gave a central focus to the community as a place for meeting, for study and for sport.
The intent of these schools was elitist – to educate the sons of the WASP upper class. They were also exclusionary, in some cases incidentally, in others by design – denying or strictly limiting admission to other groups, including Jews, Catholics, Asians, blacks, and other groups. The schools emphasized rigor and physical and mental toughness, with spare dorms, strict rules, and little free time. Sports were considered mock battle, a prelude to military service, another nod to the ideology of the British schools (Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington, purportedly remarked that “the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton”). At the boys’ schools, conflict – in the form of competition for student leadership positions, team rivalries, informal contests, and roughhousing in the dorms – was encouraged. Their cultures insisted on personal sacrifice for and submission to the group: the team, the dorm, the school.
Boarding school academics readied students for college study at a socially acceptable college: girls to the “seven sisters” – Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley; boys to Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Brown, Dartmouth, Williams, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Princeton, Haverford, Middlebury, and others (the Ivy League, founded as an athletic conference in 1954, was not a point of obsession as it is now).
The elite families had long established histories with “their” colleges, and admission of their children was a foregone conclusion. The schools’ prime objective was to shape up the children of the elite to make sure they could handle college academics. Several were “feeder schools” for specific colleges. In 1900, Exeter was Harvard’s leading feeder school and Groton sent 19 to Harvard out of a graduating class of 23 (including Franklin Roosevelt). Between 1906 and 1932, Harvard accepted 405 Grotonians, rejecting a total of 3. Choate, Andover, and Hotchkiss regularly sent their students to Yale. Deerfield supplied Dartmouth, Williams, and Amherst. The Mercersburg class of 1928 sent 54 of its 104 graduating seniors to Princeton, (including actor Jimmy Stewart). In 1934, Hill and Lawrenceville sent more students to Princeton than all US public high schools put together.
The early 1900s saw the founding of more traditional schools as well as “progressive” schools such as Putney (VT) and Buxton (MA), which turned away from the British model with coeducation, a focus on science and nature, and inclusive admissions policies. This era also saw the rise of several prominent Catholic boarding schools like Portsmouth Abbey (RI) and Canterbury (CT).
Boarding schools of this era were the source of several pedagogical innovations, notably the Harkness or Conference Method of teaching. Begun at Exeter by its famed principal Lewis Perry with funds provided by industrialist/philanthropist Edward Harkness, the Harkness Method used a large oval wooden table for classes that emphasized discussion and connection between the students rather than lecture from the teacher. Like the campus circle, the oval Harkness table emphasized community involvement and communication. This innovation soon spread to peer schools and then throughout the prep world, where it continues on strongly today.
The Modern Era (1950s-2000)
The aftermath of World War II heralded a series of major societal and economic changes to America in general and the prep school world in particular. The economic boom of the 1950s and 60s rocketed the American middle class into prosperity. Increasing numbers of middle class students applied for college admissions; many went on to professional and business careers in numbers never seen before.
This aspirational stampede prompted universities to chart a new course for their enrollment. Instead of focusing on the children of established upper class families, college admission offices widened their focus to include the high achieving children of the middle class, whose abilities and hard work appeared to point to a new class of achievers.
Concurrent with this new opportunity for middle class students, formerly excluded groups were admitted to colleges in increasing numbers as the emerging civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s put the issue of improved opportunities for African American students and other minority students at the forefront of social discussion.
Black students were tentatively admitted to boarding schools in the mid century. Gradually diversity became the watchword. Widespread coeducation followed soon after. Some boys and girls schools merged – Choate and Rosemary Hall, Northfield and Mount Hermon (MA), Loomis and Chaffee (CT). Most of the boys’ schools added girls. The newly coed schools experienced a relaxation of the old conflict based boys’ culture, more focus on the individual, and more attention to student comforts. Meanwhile, several girls’ schools chose to remain single sex and have thrived, including Madeira (VA), Westover (CT), Hockaday (TX) and Dana Hall (MA).
Religion at many boarding schools also changed. Many schools dropped their religious affiliations; others watered down their religious aspects. Daily chapel morphed from a focus on prayer and sermons to school meetings, or was terminated altogether. Ecumenicalism – an acceptance and promotion of a wide array of world religions – sprang forth, with campus-based or affiliated chaplains of many faiths. Religious instruction turned from tenets of doctrine to courses in cultural history. Nevertheless, many schools have maintained their traditional church affiliations.
International students have been a presence on American boarding school campuses since the earliest days. Today, internationals are enrolling in larger numbers, bringing a global perspective to the prep school tradition, but also raising the prospect of institutional transformation. This new question of how the schools