Peddie School

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The Peddie School
Image:Peddie logo.png
Location
Hightstown, NJ, USA
Information
Religion None
Headmaster John Green
Enrollment

514 total
63% boarding
37% day
Faculty 85
Average class size 12 students
Student:teacher ratio 6:1
Average SAT scores (2005) n/a
Type Private, Boarding
Campus Suburban, 230 acres
Athletics 20 sports
Mascot Falcons
Color(s) Blue and Gold
Established 1864
Homepage www.peddie.org

Peddie School is a prep school in Hightstown, New Jersey, United States.

It is a highly selective, nondenominational, coeducational boarding school located on a 280‑acre (1.1 km²) campus, and serves students in the ninth through twelfth grades, plus post-graduate.

It was founded as a Baptist school, "The Hightstown Female Seminary," in 1864, but later that year, boys were admitted, and it changed its name for the first time. In 1872, it became "The Peddie School" in honor of philanthropist and politician Thomas B. Peddie (1808‑1889), who gave the school $25,000.

Peddie remained coed until 1908, when, for social and economic reasons, it decided to admit boys only. This was reversed in the early 1970s, and girls were readmitted. As of March 2007, 21 states, the District of Columbia, and 22 foreign countries were represented among the student body[citation needed].

In 1993, Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg (Class of 1927) gave $100 million to Peddie, the largest donation ever made to a secondary school at the time, and unsurpassed until 2007 (by a $128 million donation to the George School).[1] In 2006, an anonymous donor gave $20 million to Peddie, the second largest donation in the school's history. Today, the school has an endowment of over $310 million, one of the largest among preparatory schools in the nation.[2]

Contents

[edit] Academics

The academic year is divided into three terms, the first two focusing on a rigorous core curriculum. During the third term, besides mathematics and certain required science courses, students may choose electives.

Advanced Placement courses are offered in AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Physics C, AP European History, AP United States History, AP French Language, AP Spanish Language, AP Latin Literature, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Psychology, AP Computer Science, AP Art History, AP Music Theory, AP Studio Art and AP Chinese Language and Culture. An Independent Study Program provides students with the opportunity to study a specialized subject in depth[citation needed].

Peddie also offers the opportunity for juniors to participate in a program called Summer Signature Experiences, allowing a select group of students to spend three to six weeks (of the summer before their senior year) pursuing their passions and doing research on a particular subject of interest. When they return to school, each participant writes a formal paper and gives a 30-minute public presentation describing the experience[3].

Examples of previous research topics include: experiencing first-hand the Renaissance architectural philosophy in Rome and Florence, discovering underwater archaeology on the Greek island of Paros, interviewing African heads of state and tribal chiefs about democracy, and studying flamenco dancing in Seville, Spain.

[edit] Athletics

All students must participate in theater, on an interscholastic team, or in one of the elective physical education classes after school.

The Ian H. Graham Athletic Center houses a swimming pool and separate diving tank; three basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts (surrounded by an indoor Tartan track); a wrestling room; an indoor soccer and lacrosse facility with Astroturf, a 2,000 square foot (190 m²) fitness center with state-of-the-art equipment; a room housing eight ergometers; and a fully equipped 6-bed training room and sports medicine center. Outdoor facilities include fourteen tennis courts, eight multipurpose fields, a specially equipped varsity football and lacrosse training field, a softball field, an Olympic-caliber ¼-mile all-weather track, a varsity football and lacrosse field, three baseball diamonds, and an eighteen-hole golf course. A recent addition, the Hovnanian Fields, added another six fields, dedicated seasonally to the freshmen and junior varsity lacrosse and soccer teams.

The Athletic Center holds a replica of the Heisman Trophy donated to the school by Yale University lineman Larry Kelley (class of 1933), who won it in 1936, the second year in which it was given.

Peddie has its own 18-hole golf course, where the boys' and girls' golf teams compete. The course is a private facility of the Peddie Golf Club, but students and faculty have free access to the greens.

Peddie competes in the MAPL, the Mid-Atlantic Prep League, a sports league with participating institutions from prep schools in the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania area. Schools competing in the league include Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, The Hill School of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Hun School of Princeton from Princeton, New Jersey, Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and Mercersburg Academy of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

Peddie is a member of the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association (NJISAA), competing in the Prep 'A' division with Lawrenceville, Hun, Blair, Saint Benedict's Preparatory School and other New Jersey prep schools depending on the sport. Peddie has graduates competing at the collegiate level in swimming, wrestling, basketball, track, crew, baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, golf, and tennis. Peddie's mascot is the Falcon.

[edit] Football rivalry

Peddie's arch-rival is Blair Academy, and the two schools compete every year during the second week of November for the Potter-Kelley Cup. The day of the competitions, which alternates yearly between campuses, is known as Blair Day. The football game between the two schools is the oldest football rivalry in New Jersey and ranks among the oldest in the country. Blair Day 2006 was held at Blair and ended in a victory for Peddie.

[edit] Crew

In 2006, the Peddie Girl's crew team's varsity four won the United States Youth National Regatta. In 2007, the four defended their United States Youth National Regatta Championship in Cincinnati, Ohio.

[edit] Swimming

Peddie also boasts nationally acclaimed swimming program. Both the Girls' and Boys' swim teams claimed first place at the Interscholastic Eastern Swimming and Diving Championships held at La Salle University. The Girls' Team placed first over runner-up Germantown Academy by 46 points and the Boys' Team claimed the championship over second place Germantown by 77 points. Moreover, numerous interscholastic national records were broken over the course of the 2006-2007 season by several members of the girls' team.

[edit] Facilities

Annenberg Hall, formerly Memorial Hall, houses the English, Mathematics, and Foreign Language departments. The different departments are distributed throughout the building's three floors.

In fall 2005, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Science Center opened. The 42,000 square-foot $19 million facility features 11 laboratory classrooms, a fully equipped DNA and Special Projects lab, a dedicated advanced experimental physics facility, a psychology seminar room, and 10 'genius' smart boards. The 'genius' smart boards are normal whiteboard surface boards, unlike normal smartboards, though capable of capturing any drawing on the board using special barcoded markers. Ceiling mounted mobile fume hoods are located above each table in the Biology and Chemistry department laboratories. This facility replaced science classrooms at the previously modern Caspersen Science building, originally built in the late 1960's. The Caspersen Science Building was subsequently remodeled and renamed the Caspersen History House in 2006 and houses history department facilities.

History classes are now taught in the newly renovated Caspersen History House while the Swig Arts Center on campus facilitates the school's visual art, music and theater programs.

The Geiger Reeves Theater, which hosts both student performances and outside ones as well.

The Peddie chapel was host to a variety of speakers, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Gerald Ford and Colin Powell.

Student life is centered around the Finn M. W. Caspersen Campus Center which houses the dining hall, underclassmen lockers, the bookstore, and the student grill.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dillon, Sam. "Alumna Gives $128 Million to High School", The New York Times, September 19, 2007. Accessed September 18, 2007. "The second-largest single donation to a private secondary school Ms. Storch was able to document, she said, was a 1993 gift of $100 million to Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., by the publisher Walter Annenberg."
  2. ^ Largest Endowments, Boarding School Review, accessed April 19, 2007.
  3. ^ Summer Signature Experiences, accessed May 23, 2006
  4. ^ Elmer Hendrickson Geran biography,United States Congress. Accessed July 11, 2007.
  5. ^ LIEUTENANT GENERAL ALAN SHAPLEY, USMC (DECEASED), accessed April 15, 2007. "General Shapley was born 9 February 1903, in New York City. His early schooling was received at Vallejo, California, and he was graduated from the Peddie School at Highstown, New Jersey, in 1922."
  6. ^ Howard W. Koch Collection, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, accessed April 15, 2007. "Howard W. Koch (1916-2001) was born in New York City. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in New York and Peddie Preparatory School in Hightstown, New Jersey."
  7. ^ "Heroes for Pay", Time (magazine), November 1, 1937, accessed April 15, 2007. "After being the most publicized Yale footballer since Albie Booth, Larry Kelley last summer turned down a fantastic offer from the Detroit Lions, supposedly because Yale alumni do not yet regard professional football as dignified. Instead, he went to The Peddie School at Hightstown, N. J., to teach history and coach Peddie's strictly amateur football team."
  8. ^ Richard Hornberger (Obituary), Variety (magazine), November 20, 1997, accessed April 15, 2007. "But in an interview last year with the Peddie News, the student newspaper of his prep school in New Jersey, Hornberger said he couldn't understand why the Robert Altman-directed film and the TV series were assailed for anti-war themes during the Vietnam War."
  9. ^ Moylan, Kyle "Major leaguer steps to plate for Peddie School: Pitcher, alum Erik Hanson donates $365,000 for field house upgrade", Princeton Packet, January 9, 1999, accessed April 15, 2007. "When Erik Hanson left the Peddie School in 1983, he left behind a legacy of pitching greatness."
  10. ^ Moylan, Kyle. "Ex-Peddie swimmer struck gold: B.J. Bedford set world record-beating pace for team, Princeton Packet, October 2, 2000, accessed April 19, 2007. "As a member of a United States swimming relay team, it wasn't a surprise that Peddie graduate B.J. Bedford was able to win an Olympic medal."
  11. ^ "Star Swimmers", Time (magazine), July 27, 1992, accessed April 19, 2007. "Nelson Diebel, U.S. - He lied his way into the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J., claiming swimming prowess he didn't have.

[edit] External links


Private High Schools and Prep Schools in New Jersey
Blair Academy | Christian Brothers Academy | Delbarton School | Dwight-Englewood School | Gill St. Bernard's School | Hun School of Princeton | Lawrenceville School | Morristown-Beard School | Newark Academy | Peddie School | The Pennington School | The Pingry School | Princeton Day School | Ranney School | Rutgers Preparatory School | Seton Hall Preparatory School | Saint Benedict's Preparatory School | St. Peter's Preparatory School | Wardlaw-Hartridge School