Commonwealth School

Commonwealth School is an independent high school of about 155 students and 35 faculty members located at 151 Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

Commonwealth School
Established	1957
Type	Private coeducational secondary
Founder	Charles E. Merrill Jr.
Headmaster	William D. Wharton
Students	150
Grades	9–12
Location	Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Website	www.commschool.org

History

Commonwealth School

Charles E. Merrill Jr., son of the founder of Merrill Lynch, founded the school in 1957, locating it in Boston's Back Bay to "restore good secondary schooling to the city". He encouraged Commonwealth students to be "decent, socially responsible, generous people," actively engaged in public affairs. Merrill returns to the school once a year to give a speech on a topic of his choice, and his books are on display in the school library alongside those of Commonwealth alumni.

Merrill insisted that the school had only one rule: "No rollerskating in the halls," — an exhortation that students should not "...act like a damn fool, but think about your actions and how they affect others".

Merrill retired in 1981, and his memoir of the first 23 years of the school's history and his experience as headmaster, The Walled Garden, was published the following year.

Symbols

The school's symbol is a mermaid with a sword and shield, derived from the coat of arms of Warsaw, Poland. This symbol appears on the school flag, publications, and the outside of the building. Because the school has no official sports mascot, the mermaid is sometimes used as one and the school's sports teams are sometimes referred to (partly in jest) as the "fighting mermaids".

The unofficial autonym for Commonwealth students is "Commie"; use of this term is opposed by the current administration.

There is no official school song, but "The Spacious Firmament On High" (Joseph Addison, Joseph Haydn) is sung each year at the opening of school and at the graduation ceremony.

Headmasters

The headmaster since 2000, William D. Wharton joined the faculty in 1985 as a teacher of history, Latin, and Greek.

There have been five headmasters:

• 1957–1981: Charles E. Merrill Jr.
• 1981–1983: Joseph "Jay" Featherstone
• 1983–1990: Charles Chatfield
• 1990–2000: Judith Keenan
• 2000–present: William Wharton

Clubs and activities

Student-run clubs and groups at Commonwealth include:

• Cheese Club
• Chess Club
• Community Service Student Board
• Computer Club
• Current Events Club
• Debate
• Diversity Committee
• Gay-Straight Alliance
• Knitting Club
• Improvisational Comedy
• Math Team
• Outing Club
• Model UN
• Rollerskating Committee
• Round-Robin Writing Club
• Science Team (Science Olympiad and Science Bowl)
• Society for the Advancement of Stuff
• Environmental Committee
• Amnesty International
• Tea Club
• 80's Club

Each year, the senior class elects two non-voting representatives to Commonwealth's Board of Trustees.

Performance

In its September, 2009 issue, Boston magazine named Commonwealth as the best private high school in eastern Massachusetts^[1]. Since 2005, the school has produced 20 National Merit Scholarship Program Finalists. Median SAT scores for the class of 2009 were 750 in Critical Reading, 720 in Writing, and 710 in Math.

Commonwealth is the only Massachusetts school to receive a grant from the Malone Scholars program of the Malone Family Foundation, which independently identifies top-level schools to receive an endowment. "Once endowed, the schools are empowered to perpetually fund scholarships to motivated top students based on merit and financial need."^[2]

In 2004, the school was recognized by the College Board's Advanced Placement Program as having the best Physics curriculum in schools of its size range (less than 500 students) in the country, based on the performance of students on the AP Physics C exam. Most junior year classes prepare students to take a corresponding AP test, though the curriculum is not generally focused on the test itself. ^[3]

School events

Assemblies

Commonwealth holds an assembly every Thursday. Speakers have included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ted Sorensen, literature critic James Wood, author Claire Messud, Michael Kelly of the Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Law Professors Charles Fried and Lani Guinier, author Samantha Power, Harvard stem cell biologist Doug Melton, philosopher & bio-ethicist Frances Kamm, poet Louise Glück, former ambassadors Peter W. Galbraith and Charles Stith, Mary Beth Cahill, free software pioneer Richard Stallman, and various musical groups. Students petition the headmaster to invite speakers they would like to hear.

While the majority of Commonwealth students identify as politically liberal, Mr. Wharton frequently schedules conservative speakers such as Charles Fried, former Assistant US Attorney General Jack Goldsmith, and William Kristol.

Special assemblies are held for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the end of the school year. It is tradition to sing "Bringing in the Sheaves" (by Shaw and Minor) every Thanksgiving assembly, and for students and teachers to recite poems every Christmas assembly. In May the seniors run an assembly where they perform skits that parody their teachers and themselves.

Sports

Each year students participate in a competitive sport or organized exercise activity in at least two out of three seasons. Competitive sports include soccer, basketball, fencing, squash, baseball, and ultimate Frisbee. Exercise programs include running, fitness, sailing, dance, ballroom dance, and yoga.

Hancock

When Charles Merrill was headmaster he started a tradition of twice-yearly trips to his family's farm in Hancock, New Hampshire. These would happen every fall and spring. The school continued to go up to the farm every semester until 1996. The "Hancock" weekend eventually moved in 1997 to Camp Winona, a summer camp in Bridgton, Maine, but the old name remains. The trip to Maine was replaced by a day trip to Provincetown in 2007, and a weekend at Camp Wing, a summer camp in Duxbury, Massachusetts, in 2008. In 2009, Spring Hancock returned to Camp Winona.

Activities

On two mornings during each trip, students and teachers organize activities to do, and each student signs up for an activity.

In the afternoons, students are free, and activities such as swimming, boating, various sports, and hiking are offered.

On the last night of Hancock, there is a talent show prepared jointly by the students and staff. There are also two dances: the "Long Dance" the night before the talent show, and the "Short Dance" after it, both organized by the students.

Jobs

The responsibility for Hancock is shared among faculty and students. Faculty oversee various tasks, such as cooking or sports. Students can sign up for jobs such as cooking meals, running the talent show and dances, and being a bike messenger. For the most part, cleaning bathrooms, collecting trash, tending fires, and other tasks are also led and staffed by students.

Jobs program

The jobs program at Commonwealth is a system whereby students are responsible for setting and cleaning up lunch and the recess snack, and performing other custodial tasks such as emptying the recycling bins throughout the school. Each student with a lunch clean up job is assigned to either a "Red Week" or a "White Week" crew that alternates every other week, and a specific day during that week. Generally, the jobs for lunch clean-up are cleaning up the dining area and working in the kitchen, cleaning up plates and pots. Those who have lunch set-up, recess clean up and recycling jobs work once every week due to these jobs taking a significantly smaller amount of time. Student "crew heads," typically juniors and seniors, take responsibility for directing each jobs crew. The savings created by having students perform these tasks instead of additional paid staff pays for three full scholarships. Many Commonwealth students and faculty believe that the jobs program teaches students a sense of responsibility for the community; the program is often concisely described as "building character."

Paid jobs

There is also a paid jobs program, whereby students are hired by the school to perform additional tasks such as run the bookstore, staff the front desk, and assist at school events. Because students perform these tasks at lower cost than additional paid staff, this program creates sufficient savings to pay for another one and a half scholarships.

Publications

There are several student-run publications at Commonwealth. They include:

• Yearbook: Each year, the senior class (and a few juniors in training) produces its own yearbook.
• Literary magazine: The literary magazine club, with the school's funding, publishes a literary magazine, which accepts many types of literature and art, including poems, short stories, photographs, drawings, and paintings. It is often known as Litmag but has come out under different names on occasion.
• The Leek: The school's satirical newspaper.
• The Intercomm: A school newspaper founded by two students in 2007.
• QOTW: A weekly collection of anecdotes from around the school.

The school produces Currents, a periodic e-mail newsletter for parents and alumni/ae, and three annual publications:

• "Projects" reports on students' week- and month-long independent projects in the arts, politics, academic and scientific research, community service, and other areas.
• "Newsletter" includes articles by alumni/ae and comments from founder Charles E. Merrill Jr.
• "At Commonwealth" is a magazine with articles by and about students and faculty, as well as class notes.

The school website also provides student access to searchable databases of online resources such as magazines and newspapers.

Notable alumni

• Patrick Amory, Matador Records general manager
• Jonatha Brooke, singer/songwriter
• Evan Dando and Ben Deily of The Lemonheads
• John Davis of Folk Implosion
• Liza Featherstone, journalist
• Peter W. Galbraith, diplomat
• Mark Greif, co-founder, co-editor and contributor to n+1
• Melissa Glenn Haber, author
• Susanna Kaysen, author who includes references to Commonwealth in her books
• Anthony Kuhn, NPR Beijing correspondent
• Kasi Lemmons, director (IMDB page)
• Hamish Linklater, actor (IMDB page)
• Mia Matsumiya, violinist of experimental rock group Kayo Dot
• Jesse Peretz, film director and former Lemonheads bassist (IMDB page)
• Cameron Russell, model

References

1. ^ Boston magazine Private Schools chart. Retrieved on 09/01/2009
2. ^ Malone Scholars page on Malone Family Foundation website. Retrieved 09/01/2009
3. ^ http://www.commschool.org/page.cfm?p=62

External links

• Commonwealth School official website: [1]
• Bunting & Lyon entry on Commonwealth School: buntingandlyon.com/detail.asp?id=441
• GT-Cybersource's page on Commonwealth School: cybersource.org/PolicyItemDetail.aspx?sid=10362
• Unofficial Traditions Page: sccs.swarthmore.edu/~cbr/traditions.html

Coordinates: 42°21′16.14″N 71°04′42.43″W / 42.3544833°N 71.0784528°W / 42.3544833; -71.0784528