Pingry School

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The Pingry School

Maxima reverentia pueris debetur The greatest respect is owed to the boys.
Established	1861
School type	Private, day
Religious affiliation	Originally parochial, now secular
Headmaster	Nathaniel E. Conard
Location	Martinsville and Short Hills, NJ, USA
Campus	240 acres (971,000 m²)
Enrollment	1020 (519 of which attend the high school)
Faculty	146 full time
Average class size	17 students
Student:Teacher ratio	6.99
Average SAT scores (2007)	Middle 50%: 610-720 critical reading, 630-710 math, 610-720 writing
Athletics	20 varsity sports
Color(s)	Blue and white
Mascot	Big Blue (Bear)
Conference	n/a

Founded in 1861 by Dr. John F. Pingry, The Pingry School is a coeducational independent college preparatory country day school with a Lower School campus in Short Hills (K-6) and a Middle and Upper School campus in Martinsville.

As of 2006, the Headmaster is Nathaniel E. Conard, and The Pingry School has an endowment of over $43 million.

For 144 years, The Pingry School has stood for excellence in teaching, high moral standards, and development of integrity and character among its students. The school values and celebrates ethnic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic diversity and strives to promote multicultural inclusion through its curriculum, programming, and outreach efforts to all students, faculty, and staff. Pingry is nationally recognized for its academic excellence and membership in the Cum Laude Society.

The school’s solid liberal arts curriculum is enriched by extracurricular activities, community service, and athletics. Pingry’s 146 full-time faculty have 11 doctorates and 67 master’s degrees with an average tenure at Pingry of 12 years. The school strongly upholds the student-initiated Honor System, which dates back to 1925.

1 Student Body
2 History
3 Honor Code
4 Graduation
5 Athletics
6 Facilities
7 Student publications
8 Accredidation
9 Notable alumni
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Student Body

The school currently enrolls 1,020 students; 319 at Short Hills and 701 at Martinsville; 182 in the Middle School and 519 in the Upper School, from 99 area communities in New Jersey. With a rigorous admission process, Pingry welcomes students to a sustaining and supportive environment in which students are comfortable with academic competition and excel to reach educational excellence.

Students come from twelve counties and over ninety municipalities.

[edit] History

The history of the Pingry School from its beginnings in 1861 to the present, is the story of a man who took a small school, hardly known beyond the limits of its city in the nineteenth century, stamped it with his ideals of education, and transformed it into a nationally recognized institution. Dr. John Francis Pingry gave the school its basic character through the strength of his own good qualities. It is a legacy that continues to this day.

Dr. John F. Pingry founded the school in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1861 to provide both scholastic training and moral education for boys. By exposing them to the rigors of a strict classical education, Dr. Pingry instilled in his students the mental discipline they needed to meet the challenges of their future life.

The School remained at its original site until 1953, when the Pingry School moved from Elizabeth only a few blocks away to the edge of Hillside, New Jersey.

Early in 1970s two important changes occurred: Pingry began the transition to a coeducational school. The first female students, who graduated in 1976, were succeeded by other young women who today represent half the student body.

Pingry grew again by merging with the Short Hills Country Day School to become a school with grades from Kindergarten through grade 12. Today over 300 children attend the Pingry Short Hills Campus.

In 1983, the School moved to Martinsville, a rural area in the Watchung and Somerset Hills. The campuses are approximately 25 minutes apart, and both are located conveniently near the New York metropolitan area, which continues to provide many outside resources to supplement the classroom.^[1]

Since Dr. Pingry's day, there have been 15 headmasters. Currently, Nathaniel E. Conard holds the post, his appointment effective July 1, 2005. The previous headmaster, John L. Neiswender, had begun his term on July 1, 2000.

Pingry's motto is Maxima reverentia pueris debetur, a Latin phrase literally meaning "the greatest respect is owed to the boys." Since becoming co-educational, the school has altered the motto's translation to "the greatest respect is due to the students." Dr. John Pingry's personal motto, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," hangs as a sign in the Martinsville campus library.

[edit] Honor Code

All students at Pingry sign an honor code, originally drafted by students in 1925, and revised in 1988:^[2]

"Pingry believes that students should understand and live by standards of honorable behavior, which are essentially a matter of attitude and spirit rather than a system of rules and regulations. Decent, self-respecting behavior must be based on personal integrity and genuine concern for others and on the ethical principles which are the basis of civilized society.

"The members of the Pingry community should conduct themselves in a trustworthy manner that will further the best interests of the school, their class, and any teams or clubs to which they belong. They should act as responsible members of the community, working for the common good rather than solely for personal advantage. They should honor the rights of others, conducting themselves at all times in a moral and decent manner while at Pingry and throughout their lives as citizens of and contributors to the larger community of the world."

Students are obliged, on their graded work, to write and sign the statement, "I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment." Before the school year starts, students must also sign a contract agreeing to work under the honor code and accept the consequences of breaking it.

[edit] Graduation

Fifty-one credits are required for graduation: full-year courses carry three credits. The usual academic load is five courses. With permission, seniors with very rigorous schedules may take four courses. Classes meet for 44 minutes, four times a week (except lab sciences). The academic year is divided into two semesters. Minimum requirements for graduation are: 12 credits in English (three each year), one year-long course in art, drama, or music, nine credits in foreign language (three consecutive years of the same language at Pingry’s Upper School), nine credits in history, nine credits in mathematics, six credits of lab science, three elective credits, and two trimesters of health. Four years of physical education credit may be earned through interscholastic athletic participation, formal physical education classes, or an approved outside activity. Courses are offered at the college preparatory, honors, and advanced placement levels. Students must also complete 10 hours of community service for each year they are enrolled at Pingry.

[edit] Athletics

Pingry’s long-standing tradition of athletic excellence is a product of its belief in teamwork. In an effort to promote this philosophy, the school offers 28 varsity teams, with a total of 70 teams covering seventh to 12th grade. Pingry’s teams are well-known champions of conference, county, and state competitions. Many of the school’s athletes have been recognized as athletic scholars, and some have gone on to play for college teams.

Pingry is a dual member of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association and the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association.

[edit] Facilities

Pingry is currently in the process of adding a new middle school to the Martinsville Campus. It is slated for use starting mid-2006. Grade 6 will be moved from the Short Hills campus to join with Forms I and II (grades 7 and 8) in the new building. The building's most notable feature is its specially designed large common area, which is planned to be used for assemblies of the middle school. This new wing, however, still shares the cafeteria with the main building.

The Pingry school's Martinsville campus has a modern-looking turqoise and pink architecture. The turqoise bricks that compose the school's central clock tower were originally supposed to be navy blue, but by the time the incorrectly colored paint arrived it was too late to make a change. The main building was designed by the well-known architecture firm Hardy Holzmann Pfeiffer Associates, and demonstrates their idiosyncratic open steel and glass style.

[edit] Student publications

The Pingry Record - School Newspaper
Vital Signs - Current Events Magazine
The Bluebook - School yearbook
Polyglot - Foreign language magazine
Calliope - A collection showcasing the writing and artistic ability of Pingry School students
The Broken Wreckord - The school's parody newspaper

[edit] Accredidation

The Pingry School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools, and the New Jersey Department of Education. The Pingry School is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and subscribes to its Statement of Principles of Good Practice.

[edit] Notable alumni

5 people on the 2006 Forbes 400 list graduated from the Pingry School

Chris Bender, producer of the American Pie series of movies.
Miller Bugliari, winningest coach of high school boys' soccer in the U.S.
Michael Chertoff, Secretary of United States Department of Homeland Security (2005– )
William A. Conway, former CEO of Garden State Bank (note: Conway missed his last year at Pingry due to illness)
Mark Donohue, race car driver, winner of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 and the 1973 Can-Am Championship.

Steven Elmendorf, deputy campaign manager for Presidential candidate John Kerry, and longtime campaign aide to Richard Gephardt.
Adam Gardner, guitarist for the rock band Guster.
Howard Georgi, emeritus professor of physics at Harvard University.
Halley Wegryn Gross, TV and Broadway actress named one of the College Vanguard fifteen undergraduates.
William Halsey, Fleet Admiral in the United States Navy
Andrew Horowitz, songwriter and keyboardist in the band Tally Hall.
Amos Hostetter, Jr., former CEO of MediaOne, billionaire on Forbes Magazine list
Jamie Johnson, documentary film maker, whose film Born Rich appeared on HBO.
Steven Johnson, senior analyst at Microsoft and leading developer of Internet Explorer 5.
Adam Kalkin, innovative architect.
Thomas Kean Jr., New Jersey State Senator and 2006 United States Senate hopeful.
James C. Kellogg III, former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Daniel Kellner, top U.S. foil fencer, 2004 Greece Olympian.
Earl Levine, notable Silicon Valley engineer and inventor.
Therese Lizardo, Miss District of Columbia 2004
Douglas Macrae, writer of Ms. Pac-man and the interactive TV listings menu that originated on satellite TV.
N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Dean Mathey, investor who made millions for Princeton University.
Thomas N. McCarter, CEO of PSE&G Corporation, developer of Penn Station in Newark, and original benefactor of the McCarter Theatre in Princeton
Andrew McCarthy, actor
Stephan Newhouse, former president of Morgan Stanley
Jon Sarkin, artist and stroke survivor, whose life story is to be portrayed in a movie by Tom Cruise
Jane Sarkin, Vanity Fair editor
Dani Shapiro, novelist
C. Lee Shelley, U.S. top épée fencer, 2-time Olympian in 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul.
Fred Small, musician, songwriter
Todd Solondz, filmmaker
Richard Tregaskis, journalist, author of Guadalcanal Diary
Jen Trynin, musician
Bruce Tunkel, singer, songwriter, and former lead of the group The Red House.
Carl Van Duyne, Ph.D., junior member of the Council of Economic Advisors, commissioned naval officer, economics professor at United States Naval Academy, 1968 Olympian in sailing.
Gillian Vigman, actress
Edward A. Weeks, Jr., former editor of The Atlantic Monthly magazine.
Lyric Wallwork Winik, Parade magazine columnist

[edit] References

^ History of The Pingry School, accessed October 12, 2006
^ The Honor Code, accessed October 11, 2006

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/i/n/Pingry_School_abb7.html"

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