Peddie School
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| Peddie School | |
 |
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| Established | 1864 |
| School type | Private, Boarding |
| Religious affiliation | None |
| Headmaster | John Green |
| Location | Hightstown, NJ, USA |
| Campus | Suburban, 230 acres |
| 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 |
| Athletics | 20 sports |
| Color(s) | Blue and Gold |
| Mascot | Falcons |
| Homepage | www.peddie.org |
Peddie School is an American private coeducational high school located on a 280‑acre (1.1 km²) campus in Hightstown, in Mercer County, New Jersey, serving students in ninth through twelfth grade. The school was founded in 1864 as the Hightstown Female Seminary, was originally a Baptist preparatory school. Later that year, boys were admitted, and the school began a series of name changes.
In 1872, the school took its current name in honor of philanthropist and politician Thomas B. Peddie (1808‑1889), who gave the school a $25,000 gift.
Peddie School remained coed until 1908, when it was decided, for social and economic reasons, to admit boys only. This standard was reversed in the early 1970s, when girls were readmitted. The school is now coeducational and nondenominational. Currently, the student body represents 21 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 22 foreign countries[citation needed].
In 1993, Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg, Peddie Class of 1927, gave $100 million to Peddie, the largest donation ever made to a secondary school. 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 $250 million, one of the largest among preparatory schools in the nation[citation needed].
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[edit] Academics
The academic year is divided into three terms with the first two terms focusing on a rigorous core curriculum. During the third term, most students choose electives of particular interest with the exception being certain mathematics and core science courses which necessarily continue through the third term.
Advanced Placement courses are offered in a variety of areas: 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 great depth[citation needed].
Peddie also offers the opportunity for juniors to participate in a program called Summer Signature Experiences. The program enables a select group of students to spend three to six weeks of the summer before their senior year pursuing their passions and do research on their particular subject of interest. When they return to school, the students write a formal paper on their findings and give a 30-minute public presentation describing their experience[1].
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, or studying flamenco dancing in Seville, Spain.
[edit] Athletics
All students must participate on an interscholastic team, theater, 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 / tennis courts surrounded by an indoor Tartan track, a wrestling room, an indoor soccer and lacrosse Astroturf facility, 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 & sports medicine center. Outdoor facilities include fourteen tennis courts (the number one on the boys tennis team is Zachary McGuinness), eight multipurpose fields, a specially equipped varsity football or 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 which are seasonally dedicated to the Freshmen & JV Lacrosse teams and Freshmen & JV Soccer.
The Athletic Center is also home to a replica of the Heisman Trophy which was donated to the school by Yale University lineman Larry Kelley '33 who won the prestigious honor in 1936, the second year the award was given.
In addition to the Athletic Center, 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'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.
Peddie's mascot is the Falcon.
In 2006, the Peddie Girl's crew team's varsity four won the Head of the Charles Regatta in the high school division and came in second overall to Northeastern University's youth four boat. In the spring season, the four with coxswain rowed undefeated, winning the two Manny Flick events in which they chose to participate, Mercer Lake Sprints, the Brown Cup versus Lawrenceville School, the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) championships, Philadelphia's City Championships, The Stotesbury Cup (the nation's largest high school regatta), The Scholastic Rowing Association Championship, and the United States Youth National Regatta.
Peddie also boasts nationally acclaimed swimming and wrestling programs.
[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. The school's bookstore is located in the basement.
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.
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.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Alan Shapley - Lieutenant General in the United States Marine Corps and recipient of the Navy Cross.
- The Hon. Walter H. Annenberg '27 – Former ambassador to Britain and founder of TV Guide and Seventeen magazine.
- Howard W. Koch '33 – Film producer and director (Airplane!, The Odd Couple)
- Richard Tregaskis '33 – War correspondent and author of the award-winning Guadalcanal Diary, the source for the 1943 film starring William Bendix, Richard Conte, and Anthony Quinn
- Larry Kelley '33 - 1936 Heisman Trophy winner
- H. Richard Hornberger '41 – Author of the book, M*A*S*H, which spawned the film and television series
- Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge '49 - former CIA operative. Author of A Spy for All Seasons
- Seyyed Hossein Nasr '50 - renowned Iranian philosopher
- Erik Hanson '83 - Pitcher, Major League Baseball
- Patricia Sabga '85 - NBC News correspondent
- Pia Clemente '89 - Received Academy Award Nomination for Best Live Action Short Film for her film, Our Time is Up.
- B.J. Bedford '90 – Gold-medallist swimmer (4x100 medley relay team) in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney
- Nelson Diebel '90 – Double gold-medallist swimmer at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona
- Sean Gilbert '92 – Defensive Lineman, National Football League
[edit] References
- ^ Summer Signature Experiences, accessed May 23, 2006
[edit] External links
