Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Staxringold (talk | contribs) at 22:12, 29 March 2006 (→The Fallow Years: Again, general history covered in the actual book, was originally written away from the book so cited with archives I had. Published trumps unpublished). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

For the Minnesota school see Hopkins Senior High School and for the university see Johns Hopkins University.

Hopkins School (or Hopkins Grammar School) is a coeducational private day school located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1660, it is the fifth-oldest educational institution in the United States and is second-oldest secondary school in continuous existence in North America, younger only than the Roxbury Latin School. Hopkins was founded "for the breeding up of hopeful youths" with a part of Edward Hopkins estate to fulfill John Davenport's wishes to bring a grammar school to New Haven. After more than 250 years on the New Haven Green the school moved to its current campus on a hill overlooking New Haven in 1926. Hopkins has been coeducational since merging with Day Prospect Hill in 1972.

Hopkins is divided into three separate schools. The Junior school consists of the 7th and 8th grades, known as the Lower class. The high school is divided into the Middle (9th and 10th grade) and Upper (11th and 12th grade) classes. Most new students enter Hopkins in either the 7th or 9th grade. Despite a $40,000,000 USD endowment, Hopkins' tuition has increased substantially over recent years to fund new development. Tuition is set at $24,400 for the 2005–2006 school year. Financial aid packages are available, most of which involve a work scholar program. Hopkins's main rival in athletics is Hamden Hall in Hamden, Connecticut.

History

Founding

John Davenport, a founder of the New Haven Colony, was an early proponent of education in the colony. Grammar schools of the time generally prepared young men for college, but the Puritan colony was too far from England for its citizens to attend the existing English schools. Parents of the time were generally more concerned with spending their money on essentials such as food and viewed formal education as an extravagence most could not afford. Davenport enlisted the help of a friend, Edward Hopkins, governor of the Connecticut Colony, to found a traditional grammar school that would teach Latin, Greek, and Hebrew grammar. The two made numerous failed attempts to secure funding.

Hopkins died in 1657 and bequeathed money to found a school dedicated to "the breeding up of hopeful youths for the public service of the country in future times." Colonial officials wanted Hopkins's bequest to remain in Connecticut and appointed three men, Davenport and two others, executors of Hopkins's will. They created the "Hopkins Fund" from which Hopkins Grammar School was established in 1660. The school's first home was a small building on the New Haven Green.

The exact date of Hopkins School's founding is still debated. The historical record of the executors' report implies the trust was created May 4 1660. Others note that the Julian calendar was in use then so the date on modern calendars was May 14. The papers which created the fund were presented and accepted on May 30. Many use this date as the official date of the school's founding. Finally, on June 4 (June 14 on modern calendars) Davenport transferred control of the bequest to the Colony, on the condiiton that the colony accept resonsibility for the support of the school.

The Fallow Years

"The Fallow Years" is a term coined by Thomas B. Davis in his history Chronicles of Hopkins Grammar School to describe the period from 1696 to 1853. During this time the school had difficulty finding qualified schoolmasters and the Fund often fell short in paying them. This forced the school to take up collections to meet its payroll. Consequently, there was great turnover in Hopkins schoolmasters, some staying for no more than a year. Also contributing to the problem was the establishment of the Collegiate School in New Haven in 1701, which later became Yale University. The Collegiate School drew many local academics away from Hopkins.

Public opinion of Hopkins and academia in general weakened the school. During this time, parents wanted children who could read and write English and understand basic arithmetics, but Hopkins continued to focus on subject that parents deemed irrelevant, such as Latin. Parents were also displeased with schoolmasters who paid little attention to struggling students while instead focusing only on the scholars. On January 12, 1713 the committee which managed the Hopkins Fund began releasing £12–15 annually to run elementary English schools in East Haven and West Haven. The town of New Haven stopped donating money to the Fund in 1719, which made hiring schoolmasters nearly impossible. Though the trustees of the Hopkins Fund constituted an independent body, the town was known to control them with financial pressures. Richard Mansfield served as schoolmaster from 1742–1747, and was the last headmaster until 1839 to serve for more than three years.

Although Hopkins was still somewhat unpopular with the locals, as New Haven grew so did Hopkins and the school moved to a new larger brick building on the Green. Hopkins was somewhat rare among American schools in that it remained open during the American Revolutionary War. Former schoolmaster John Hotchkiss was killed by the British in July 1779 during their invasion of New Haven and former schoolmaster Noah Williston was captured. Although the school remained open, records seem to indicate it was frequently closed between September 1780–October 1781 "for vacation". Shortly after the Revolution, Hopkins hired Jared Mansfield for two terms (first from 1786–1790, then 1790–1795) to the unique position "Master of the Grammar School" to try and stabilize the school for the future. In between Mansfield's two terms, Abraham Bishop held a six month term as headmaster during which he proposed radical reform, including making Hopkins coeducational. After the end of Mansfield's second term, the school returned to the pattern of short tenures for schoolmasters.

Hopkins moved buildings again in 1803 to an even larger facility on the Green that took up nearly an entire block. Teachers were offered two-year contracts to teach at Hopkins, but rarely kept them. Hopkins boys grew "unruly and malicious", some roaming New Haven streets at night. At the same time Hopkins' position as a center of preparation for higher education drew young teachers who were extremely zealous (either academically or religiously), but who quickly grew disappointed with teaching these boys. In 1838 the school moved once again, as the trustees believed that moving the school away from the town center would allow its students to focus more on their studies. Throughout August and September that year they rushed through the necessary transactions to buy the new plot of land. Following this move the trustees released an announcement to New Haven's three newspapers summarizing their hope that this new location would provide sufficient space for the boys to learn and be seperate enough that they could do so in peace.

Hawley Olmstead became headmaster in 1839 and ended the line of short-termed schoolmasters as he held the position for ten years. Although Olmstead thought much like Hopkins' early masters, namely that the school existed to prepare boys for college, he also modernized the curriculum in several ways. Most notably English was finally added to the curriculum and he began keeping accurate school rolls which solidified his final legacy, increasing the size of Hopkins student body. By the time Olmstead resigned due to poor health on July 28, 1849 school attendance had risen to 63 students.

As soon as Hawley Olmstead left, the school began to deteriorate once again with attendance dropping to 45 students in 1850 and farther down to 20 by 1853. In addition, the recently founded debate society disbanded, with seven young members forming the secret society known as "The Club". Though this club grew no larger and tried to remain quiet, parents grew annoyed with this supposedly "rough-housing" club that it was forced to disband in 1851. After the debate society and "The Club" were gone many students sought out new ways to express their literary interests, including founding the school newspaper that survives to this day, The Razor. Hawley's successor, Edward Olmstead, was seen as a major failure by the trustees for the school's rapid decline and was quickly replaced by James Whiton who had just recently graduated from Yale. He further revised the curriculum by adding more English to it and school attendance saw a rapid increase once again. Whiton taught for ten years and is regarded as the last of the "Fallow Years" headmasters.

Modern day

In 1925 the school bought land north of New Haven for a new campus. The school opened at the new premises, the present campus, in 1926. Baldwin Hall was the only building, but the campus expanded greatly over the next century. By 1935 Hopkins had begun to refer to itself without "Grammar School" in the casual name. However, the school is referred to as Hopkins Grammar School on certain formal occasions and for instance on school stationery to this day.

Two local women's schools — the Day School (founded in 1907) and the Prospect Hill School (founded in 1930) — merged in 1960. The combined institution became the Day Prospect Hill School (DPH), a united women's education school. Both schools had been considered sister schools to Hopkins and the merged DPH immediately had a close relationship with Hopkins. In 1969 both schools began considering a merger — DPH for expansion and Hopkins for diversification. Coordination between the two schools was considered but in August 1971 Hopkins announced it would become coeducational with or without DPH, and the merger was finalized in February 1972. DPH paid for the construction of a new building on Hopkins' campus by selling its former campus to the city of New Haven.

In recent years, alumnus John C. Malone, a wealthy telecommunications mogul, has donated large amounts of money for new construction, remodeling of older buildings, purchasing new land, and establishing an endowment.

Facilities

Baldwin Hall is the original building of the present campus. Baldwin has four floors, including the basement, with an underground passage to Hopkins House. Baldwin houses a computer lab, the language lab, the school store, and the Library. Baldwin was majorly renovated in 2000 and had additional work done on the exterior in the summer of 2005.

Hopkins House houses the administrative offices, teachers offices, the teacher's lounge, and classrooms in the basement. This building was named for Edward Hopkins, one of the founders of Hopkins School, and is built as a direct replica of the original schoolhouse on the Green from 1660. Day Prospect Hill (DPH) is the former home of the Day Prospect girls school. Intended to be temporary, DPH houses a computer lab and classrooms mostly used by the Junior School. It is connected to the Arts Center and the 'Old Gym'. The Day Prospect Hill building is scheduled to be replaced in 2007.

Lovell Hall is a recently remodeled building behind Heath and between Baldwin and DPH. Lovell houses the main school auditorium, art and music classrooms, and teachers' offices. This building is named after long-time headmaster, George Lovell, who led the school in the first half of the 20th century. Malone Science Center is at the center of the Hopkins' campus and houses the science classrooms and labs. Donated by John C. Malone, it is named for Malone's father. It was opened for students in 1999 and has three floors of classrooms.

Heath Commons is a two-storey building that houses the school cafeteria and a student lounge. This building was also donated by John Malone and named for his favorite teacher while at Hopkins, John Heath. Heath Commons was designed by the S/L/A/M collaborative. It was completed in 2003 and won a Connecticut Design Award in 2005. Heath's houses the kitchens and dining hall, multi-purpose rooms, and advisors' offices.

The Walter Camp Athletic Center is named after alumnus Walter Camp, Yale's football coach. The Athletic Center has two floors of gyms, a pool, a trainer, and coaches office. The first floor is comprised largely of three standard-sized basketball courts. Dividers between these courts are removed and the united room is used for all-school assemblies. The second floor includes smaller weight rooms and training areas including the wrestling room. The Old Gym is a large one-room gym with a high roof. Before the Camp Athletic Center, this was the main athletic facility at Hopkins and is now used mostly for fencing team practices, an indoor ropes course, and storage.

Academics

Applicants to Hopkins undergo a series of standardized tests, and upon matriculation, testing is done to place students at the appropriate level of instruction in mathematics and languages. Hopkins' academics are broken into departments including English, mathematics, science, history, arts, language, and computer science. Each of the three class levels - Lower, Middle, and Upper - has a different level of choice in classes.

The Arts Department is made up of student organizations and academic classes in studio and performance art. A number of student groups feature performing arts; a capella groups such as the Harmonaires, Triple Trio, and Spirens; theater groups such as the Hopkins Drama Association; and a variety of choral and instrumental performance groups. A gallery room in Baldwin hold numerous shows of student and teacher art.

The English department is the only department in which Hopkins requires a student have at least one class in every semester. Upper class students have two required semester classes - a college-prep writing course and a Shakespeare-centered course. The history department is divided between broad basic required courses called Atlantic Communities and elective courses that go into detail on subjects such as the American Civil War. The language department is divided into two sub-departments - the Classics which teaches Greek and Latin and Modern Languages which teaches all other languages (French, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian are currently offered).

The mathematics department offers study from pre-algebra to advanced Calculus and Chaos Theory. The science department has three main tracks — Biology, Chemistry, and Physics — along which students can take entry level courses and then more advanced AP and Honors courses. There are numerous one-off courses in subjects such as Introduction to Psychology or Environmental Studies. The computer science department offers basic computing courses in HTML and Java.

Hopkins has various oddities in its scheduling. The school declares snow days for small amounts or simply the risk of snow. In addition, school ends every Wednesday at 1:30 PM as opposed to the usual 3:30 PM. This extra time is generally used to schedule away sports meets, to allow for travel time. Hopkins adopted a modified block scheduling system in 2005, giving each class fifty-five minutes rather than forty minutes. Each student has two weekly class schedules, which alternate throughout the school year.

Graduation requirements

Hopkins' one room Latin grammar school history is still reflected in graduation requirements. Every student is required to take an English course every semester, and Junior Schoolers are required to take Latin along with whichever other language they may take. In addition to classical education, Hopkins requires three years of math courses and three years of a language (two years of Junior School level language counting as one full year for graduation requirements), two years of history and two years of science coursework. However, this only makes up a fraction of a student's total graduation credit requirement, while the rest is fulfilled by elective and advanced courses in any of the various departments.

Student privileges

Students have varying levels of power and responsibility at Hopkins, based upon what grade they are in and what leadership positions they hold. Lower classmen are 7th and 8th graders who study primarily in DPH, separated from the rest of the school. In addition, they have their own separate athletic teams and student organizations. Lower classmen have few privileges, though they can vote for certain Student Council posts and participate in the Junior School sports teams and student organizations of their choosing.

Middle classmen are the two younger grades of standard American high school, 9th and 10th grade. In addition to lower class privileges, Middle classmen can begin designing their own schedule, choosing a few elective courses as opposed to the nearly completely pre-designed schedules of the Junior School. Middle classmen may also participate in general school teams and organizations.

Upper classmen are the older two grades of American high school, 11th and 12th grade. Upper classmen have nearly complete control over their own schedules as they begin to fulfill their graduation requirements in departments and move on to study topics of their own interest. Upper classmen can also apply for a parking space and the ability to leave campus periodically. Juniors can run for Student Council president at the end of their Junior year; and Seniors can create a 'Senior Project,' a self-designed path of study replacing several courses a Senior is taking second semester of his or her Senior year.

Student Council

The Student Council (or STUCO) is the student government of Hopkins. Each middle and upper school class elects 4 representatives and a class president at the end of the previous year. Eighth graders elect two of their 9th grade representatives and their president at the end of 8th grade, then the final 2 representatives once the generally large group of students has joined Hopkins in the 9th grade. In the 2004–2005 school year, the Junior school added their own section to the student council. Each class also elects representatives from individual advisor groups to deal with class activities and fundraisers.

The highest position in the Student Council is the Student Council President, a student elected at the end of their junior year to run the Council during their senior year. The president organizes school-wide fundraisers, delivers a speech at most assemblies, and holds some ceremonial graduation duties. The Student Council can be seen as an analogy to the American governmental system. Each class functions like a state with a legislature of advisor group representatives with the class president as a Governor. Class representatives act as a Congress that deals with school-wide issues with the STUCO President fulfilling the Presidential role.

Extracurricular activities

Junior school students select from their own, separate lists of activities during advisor meetings, and their activities sessions are separate from the general school. The main school activities program begins with the Activities Fair, usually held in early September, where every activity puts on a display and signs up members for that school year. These various clubs and organizations then meet each Wednesday during the last period of the day, which is set aside as an activities period as opposed to an academic one.

In addition to traditional school organizations such as the Student newspaper and yearbook, Hopkins focuses strongly on community service especially within the New Haven community itself. The Student government runs school-wide events such as a fundraiser for the Connecticut Food Bank, but the bulk of Hopkins community service happens through clubs. Both the diversity clubs such as a racial equality club or a Gay-Straight Alliance and specific service clubs such as Habitat for Humanity organize a variety of fundraisers and events throughout the year. While not a graduation requirement, community service is such an important aspect of Hopkins life that it is hard to not become involved.

Hopkins hosts a Summerbridge program during the summer, opening all of the campus not being used by regular summer school programs to Summerbridge. Summerbridge is a community service program meant to further the education of children from poor families. Over 20% of families in New Haven are below the poverty line.

Athletics

Hopkins' athletics function under a trimester system, with students taking an athletic for each of the fall, winter, and spring seasons. Students may choose to participate in a team sport if they make the team, an intramural sport, or an independent sport where the student participates in a school-approved athletic activity such as martial arts lessons. Seniors may also take one season off and not take any athletic for that season. Sports offered at Hopkins vary depending on the season and include cross country, soccer, water polo, American football, field hockey, volleyball, basketball, fencing, indoor track, swimming/diving, wrestling, golf, lacrosse, tennis, track, baseball, and softball. Hopkins is a member of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council.

The Hilltoppers

The Hopkins school mascot was originally the stag, first appearing on Edward Hopkins' self-designed seal in 1660. The stag did not make live appearances as the mascot, but was the animal generally associated with the school. Hopkins' sports teams were first referred to as "Hilltoppers" in the 1980s. School archivist Thom Peters is responsible for the adoption of the goat as a school mascot. He had been organizing a fundraiser in the 1990s and was planning on selling photographs with the school mascot. No stag was available, but a school family was willing to lend a goat to Peters. In addition, the school was able to find a goat costume but not a stag costume, so the goat was an easier mascot for large sporting events. The goat has gone on to become Hopkins' predominant mascot, the stag now only appearing on the seal.

Notable alumni

See List of famous Hopkins School alumni

References

1. Review of Hopkins authored for the Directory of Private Schools at some point in 2005. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
2. "Summary of Hopkins Financial Aid" authored for Hopkins Homepage some time in 2005. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
3. ^ Chronicles of Hopkins Grammar School: 1660–1935. Thomas B Davis. Quinnipiack Press, New Haven, CT. 1938
4. ^ Unpublished Manscripts and archival materials by School Archivist Thom Peters, ca 2005. Retrieved March 19, 2006
5. Barbara Riley's speech at Heath's Dedication hosted on the Hopkins homepage on May 14, 2004. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
6. S/L/A/M Homepage authored by the S/L/A/M Collaborative. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
7. 2005 Connecticut Design Award candidates for AIACT at some point in 2005. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
8. ^ Hopkins Course Guide, published annually by Hopkins School.
9. Hopkins Summerbridge information on the Hopkins homepage, large portion written by Kate Goldenheim in September 2005. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
10. Summerbridge Homepage from the Breakthrough Collaborative at some point in 2005. Retrieved March 19, 2006.
11. Homepage of NEPSAC. Retrieved March 19, 2006.

External links

• Hopkins School's homepage
• Hopkins' Library page
• Class of 2005 Senior Spotlight
• Private School Review of Hopkins
• New Haven Advocate on (partly) a new Hopkins art teacher

• Educational institutions established in the 17th century
• High schools in Connecticut
• Private schools in Connecticut
• New Haven, Connecticut