St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire)

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This is about the St. Paul's School in the United States. For other schools, see the disambiguation page.

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St. Paul's School is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school in Concord, New Hampshire, United States, affiliated with the Episcopal Church. It was founded in 1856 by Dr. George Cheyne Shattuck, Jr. The 2,000 acre (8 km²) New Hampshire campus currently serves around 530 students. The school became co-educational in 1971 and is one of six remaining 100% residential boarding schools in the U.S. St. Paul's attracts students from all over the United States and the world. Though the school is nominally a religious institution, the faiths represented in the student body include nearly every religion as well as nonbelievers.

St. Paul's is part of an organization known as The Ten Schools Admissions Organization. This organization was founded more than forty years ago on the basis of a number of common goals and traditions. Member schools include St. Paul's, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Hill School, The Hotchkiss School, The Lawrenceville School, The Taft School, The Loomis Chaffee School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Phillips Academy Andover.

The school's endowment stood at $353 million as of June 5, 2005, or over $660,000 per student.

The school's motto is "Ea discamus in terris quorum scientia perseveret in coelis," which translates to "Let us learn those things on Earth the knowledge of which continues in Heaven."

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Millville

Image:IMG 0708.JPGThe school's bucolic 2000-acre campus is familiarly known as "Millville", after a now-abandoned mill whose relic still stands in the woods near the Lower School Pond. Though the campus is located a few miles from the center of Concord, a small city, it feels secluded and rural. With the exception of the staff, few residents of the outside world venture on campus, and so the community becomes virtually a world unto itself.

Though the school owns 2000 acres, the overwhelming majority of this acreage is comprised of wild and wooded areas. The campus includes four ponds and the upper third of the Turkey River. Most of the buildings are relatively close to one another.

There are 18 dorms, nine boys' and nine girls', which each house between 25 and 40 students and are vertically integrated. This means that every dorm has members of all four classes. The architecture of the dormitories varies from the collegiate gothic style of the "Quad" dorms to the spare, modern (and cramped) style of the Kittredge building. The newest dorm, palatial Kehaya, was constructed in 1992, and its donor stipulated that it be forever a girls' dormitory, presumably to prevent boisterous high school boys from defacing the dorm's stately rooms.

Classes are held in six buildings: language and humanities classes meet in the Schoolhouse; math classes, in Moore; science classes, in Payson; visual arts, in Hargate; music and ballet classes, in the Oates Performing Arts Center; and theatre classes, in the New Space black-box theatre. The Schoolhouse, Moore and Payson form a quadrangle, along with Memorial Hall, the 600 seat theatre used for all school gatherings not suited to the chapel space.

The Ohrstrom library, constructed in 1991 to the tune of several million dollars, houses some 70,000 books and overlooks the Lower School Pond. Across the pond from the library, students sunbathe and swim off of "the Boat Docks," so called because they were once used for crew.

Perhaps the focal point of the campus is the Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul, also known as the New Chapel. Constructed in the late 19th century, the Chapel is the first gothic revival chapel built in America.

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The Structure of the School Year

Most students (approximately 100 out of 140 in each graduating class) enter St. Paul's as freshmen. Freshmen are known as Third Formers. Originally, St. Paul's accepted students at age 12, and these students were known as "First Formers." The school stopped accepting First Formers when it began to accept girls in 1971. Another 30 students enter the school as sophomores – Fourth Formers – and fewer than 10 enter as juniors – Fifth Formers. St. Paul's does not accept Sixth Formers as new students and there are no post-grads – students who have completed high school elsewhere and attend a different school for a year, usually to play a sport – on campus. In 2006, St. Paul's released data that showed that their admission process this year was the most selective in the history of the school. The school reportedly accepted only 18% of the students that applied as opposed to the higher 22% of earlier years. The academic year is divided into three terms: Fall Term, which runs from the start of school in early September till Thanksgiving break; Winter Term, which runs from after Thanksgiving break until Spring Break at the beginning of March; and Spring Term, which runs from after Spring Break until the end of the School Year in the second week of June.

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Daily Life

Image:IMG 0419.JPGLike many private schools in its area, St. Paul's operates on a six-day school week, meaning that classes meet on Saturday. Wednesdays and Saturdays, however, are half-days, with athletic games in the afternoons. Days packed with activity are both exhausting and engaging, a fact perhaps best summed up by the aphorism that "the days are long but the weeks fly by."

For Paulies, as St. Paul's students are called, most school days begin with Chapel. This mandatory interfaith half-hour meeting occurs four times a week (every school day except Wednesday and Saturday.) In the Chapel, four rows of bench seating face inwards on either side of a center aisle, with Third Formers sitting in the front rows of each side, Fourth and Fifth Formers in the second row, Sixth Formers in the third, and finally, Faculty members in the last row. The service begins with a reading. Each reading is sourced from fonts of wisdom as varied as scripture, Lance Armstrong's autobiography, the Bhagavad Gita, and the poetry of e.e. cummings. Following the reading is either a speaker or a presentation. Speakers can be alumni, Faculty members, Sixth Formers, luminaries brought to the community, community religious leaders, or others. Presentations are usually musical performances by students, and can be jazz, classical, a cappella, or even (occasionally) rock and roll music. The Rector then says prayers, including a prayer for any community members celebrating their birthday. Chapel is concluded by "reports and announcements," which include general scheduling reminders, announcements of disciplinary action, and student events like movie screenings or club meetings. Students often perform short skits during Reports to plug their events.

After Chapel, a full day of classes await students. St. Paul's conducts all its classes (with the exception of science and some math classes) in a round-table format – known as the "Harkness method" – encouraging discussion between students and the teacher, and between students. The average class size according to the School's website is 10-12 students.

Rather than offering a Physical Education class, St. Paul's requires all its students to play sports for all six terms of their Third and Fourth Form years, and for any three terms during their Fifth and Sixth Form years. These sports range from a world-champion crew team (more on that later) to club hockey, an intramural sport designed to acquaint even non-skaters with the game of ice hockey.

Twice a week, students attend Seated Meal. Seated Meal (or "Seated" as it's called by Paulies) requires formal attire (which is, not coincidentally, known at St. Paul's as "Seated Meal attire.") Seven students and a faculty member are randomly assigned to each table, and the meal is eaten "as a family," so food is served from communal serving dishes, and the table is excused only after everyone has eaten. Students have an opportunity to meet and become acquainted with members of the community they would not otherwise have met. Even the contingent of community members (which contains both students and Faculty) who find Seated a bore are glad: fifty years ago, there were twenty seated meals a week.

In the evenings, meetings are held for clubs and activities including music ensembles like the Chorus and Band, theatre rehearsals, a cappella groups (the all-male Testostertones, the all-female Mad Hatters, and the co-ed Deli Line), the Debate Team, and other extracurriculars.

Somewhere in this schedule, through free periods, through time eked out between sports and dinner, and through long hours into the night, students complete a full load of homework.

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Traditions

Image:Alumni Parade.JPGThe school is known for its many longstanding traditions. For example, near the start of the school year—on a sunny, crisp Fall day— the Rector announces a surprise holiday – Cricket Holiday – in morning Chapel. Classes are cancelled for the day and the Rector leads new students and faculty on a tour of the woods surrounding the School. The rest of the day is given to relaxation and catching up on much-needed sleep. The Cricket Holiday tradition dates back to the first Rector, Henry Augustus Coit, who preferred cricket over baseball as a "more refined sport."

Winter and Spring Terms also have their own surprise holidays. During the frozen month of February, the Missionary Society (which has nothing to do with religious conversion but is instead the school's community service organization) plans and announces Mish Holiday. The holiday is announced the day before, the evening is given over to a theme dance, and the next day is a day off from school. The Missionary Society is given to using extravagant stunts when announcing its holiday, which have recently included fireworks over the Lower School Pond, and pulling a fire drill in every dorm simultaneously (thereby getting the entire school community outside at the same time) and then flying a plane overhead trailing a "Happy Mish!" banner. Late in Spring Term, the Rector calls another holiday, called Rector's Recess.

Students who participate in club sports (intramural) at St. Paul's are assigned to one of three teams for their entire school careers—"Isthmian," "Delphian" or "Old Hundred." Students also are assigned to one of two "Boat Clubs""—"Halcyon" or "Shattuck." The rivalry of the clubs has lasted for more than a century. If a graduate's descendant attends the school, he or she is assigned to the same clubs.

The Annual Inter-House, Inter-Club Dorm Run takes place late in Fall Term, usually in early to mid-November. Students are invited to earn points for their dorm and club by running in a 2-mile cross country race. For most of the non-cross-country athletes, participating – not winning – is the point, and anyone finishing in under 25 minutes is counted. Pizza parties are awarded to both the dorm with the fastest runners and the dorm with the most participation.

During a weekend in the Fall Term, the Student Council holds Cocktails, a dinner/dance formal. No alcohol is served, but each dorm's prefects set their students up with members of the opposite sex from other dorms.

On the last night of every term, students gather in the Chapel at 9 PM for the Last Night service. The 15-minute service is always well attended, and assigned Chapel seating is suspended. The Last Night Hymn is sung loudly as students look forward to "the days of rest which are now before us." At the conclusion of the service, students cheer wildly and then exit to say good-bye to friends outside the Chapel. At the Last Night service for Spring Term, which is also the last night of school before summer vacation, the entire Faculty lines up outside the Chapel after the service and students shake hands with every member as they exit.

An even more emotional Last Night service than this one occurs on the Sixth Formers' Last Night at St. Paul's, the night before graduation. Seniors gather as a Form in the smaller Old Chapel in a poignant service. At the conclusion, the rest of the student body is waiting outside, and this is generally when Sixth Formers say their emotional goodbyes to the students who are not graduating.

The service is, in its way, a full circle return, as a candle-lit First Night service is held for all newbs (see Lingo) on their first night at SPS. In that service, the new students are formally invited into their chapel seats and by extension into a place in the St. Paul's community.

During Anniversary Weekend, held on the first weekend of June, alumni converge on the school for get-togethers, reunions and the annual Alumni Parade. Each Form (class) marches down Chapel Road in chronological order, starting with the oldest living alumni (currently, the earliest Form represented is the Form of 1934, with one 89-year old alumnus who marches every year.) In the back of this long column is the about-to-be-graduated Sixth Form.

St. Paul's students once had a close relationship with jam bands like the Grateful Dead. According to "Skeleton Key" by David Shenk and Steven Silberman, much of the lingo peculiar to St. Paul's originated in 1978 as the "Pyramid Dialect" among St. Paul's alumni on tour with the Grateful Dead in Egypt. Phish played in the Upper (the School's dining hall) on May 19, 1990.

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Lingo

Image:IMG 0514.JPGLike many insular communities, St. Paul's School has its own way of speaking. Some of these words are institutions at the school, used so commonly by students that even faculty members use them. Others are used in an ironic nod to the school's past. Still others are arcane and rarely used, but earn their inclusion here by being peculiar to the Millville community.

  • Bolt: vb. trans. 1. To deal with or take care of. ("Bolt your vids.") 2. (Derogatory) To flee or forget about. ("Bolt that.")
  • Butter: vb. trans. 1. To relax with and do something. 2. To enjoy or like. de~ : To dislike. Sickly ~ : Intensified form of butter.
  • Frelk: n. A frelk is similar to, but not the same as a hippie. Both are committed to the natural world, spirituality, and individualism, but hippies have a deep commitment to a way of living, whereas frelks integrate these values into their lives at an elite New England boarding school.
  • Frelk out: vb. intrans. Frelking out is a form of dancing best performed to "frelky" music, though it works for almost anything. It involves letting the entire body become loose and slowly flailing the arms while twisting around. (See the picture above. It's not as ridiculous as it sounds.)
  • Frelky: adj. Of or characterizing frelks. Frelky music includes Phish, the Grateful Dead, the Dave Matthews Band, and Pink Floyd. Other things that often qualify as frelky include: frisbees, tie-dye, marijuana, walking in the woods, and environmentalism. A true frelk would be upset at having certain things classified as "frelky"; frelks do things because they like them, not to cultivate an image. Thus, anything done in accordance with the philosophy of frelkiness is frelky.
  • Mellow: adj. Cool, but in a calming relaxing way. A day spent out on the chapel lawn playing frisbee is mellow.
  • Mote: vb. trans. 1. To work hard and do a thorough job on (usually with respect to academics, e.g. "I moted my Humanities paper.") 2. n. A hardworking student.
  • Newb: n. A newb is any member of the school in his or her first (not necessarily freshman) year. The term is originally a verbal shorthand for "new boy." "Newg" was used when girls were first admitted in the early '70s but has since dropped out of favor. ~ light: The harsh, interrogation-style lighting provided by the school in dorm rooms, so named because (supposedly) only newbs use them. Most students buy desk and floor lamps to create a more mellow (see mellow) aura. ~liness: actions typical of a newb. Walls bereft of posters, not knowing the way to the Upper and mispronouncing the names of Faculty members are all instances of newbliness. pre~: a student who has been admitted to St. Paul's but is not yet attending. Prenewbs visit the School for a day and spend time with a real newb, and it helps them make a decision about where to go to high school.
  • Score: vb. trans. 1. Unlike in the rest of the world, to "score" someone at SPS does not necessarily imply sexual relations. It may mean to hold hands in public with, to have sex with, or anything in between. Perhaps best summarized by the phrase "more than friends." 2. When used in the progressive tense, to be in a relationship with. ("I'm scoring a girl in Kehaya.") newb ~: a relationship that occurs during freshman year. Often looked back on nostalgically during Sixth Form. random ~: a one-night hook-up between two people who don't know each other very well.
  • Sesh: vb. trans. To do, but in a non-obligatory way. One can sesh a vid, longboard or frisbee, but under no circumstance can one sesh their homework. 2. (used with vids) To hang out, relax. ("I'm just seshing my vids.")
  • Shank: vb. trans. To slack off with respect to. ("I'm shanking Calculus this term.") 2. vb. intrans. To be generally lazy. ("My lab partner shanked, so I had to do it all.") 3. n. A slacker.
  • Vid: n. A verbal oddity that has its roots from the acronym Visually Intesive Display in art courses at SPS. It has now come to refer to anything to which someone is too lazy or cool to apply a proper name. One can sesh his vids, butter his vids, or vid his vids. Vid being the free-flowing word it is, it can also be used as a verb or an adjective, as in "Vid me the vidding vid."
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Notable alumni

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See also

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External links

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