Milton Academy (also known as Milton) is a coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9â€"12 Upper School and a grade Kâ€"8 Lower School. Boarding is offered starting in 9th grade. Milton is noted for its prestige and strong academic programs, having produced many notable alumni, including a Nobel Laureate, several members of the United States Congress, a governor (Deval Patrick of Massachusetts), and a Medal of Honor recipient. In late 2007, the Wall Street Journal identified Milton Academy as one of the world's top 25 schools for its success in preparing students to enter top American universities. Milton is a member of the Independent School League (ISL). Milton's historic rival is Noble and Greenough.
History
The original Milton Academy was founded by a Massachusetts bill granting a charter in 1798, but operations ceased decades later with the opening of the public Milton High School; the institution was re-established in 1884 by John Murray Forbes and other progressive philanthropists. Up until 1980, the school was split into boys and girls schools. The school was established in 1798, as shown below the book in the school crest. However, the number given in Roman numerals along the outside of the crest reads 1898, marking the school's centennial.
Students and faculty
There are 670 Upper School students at Milton, half of whom live on campus. There are 127 faculty members in the Upper School, 78% of whom have postgraduate degrees, and 9% holding doctorates. It has an average class size of 14, and a female-to-male ratio of 50â€"50. There are 305 students in the Lower School (Kindergarten-Grade 8). The Middle School (Grade 6-8) and Lower School (Kindergarten-Grade 5) have 25 and 28 faculty members respectively.
Milton offers several off-campus programs. Some students take a school year abroad in France, Italy, Spain or China; others go on semester programs such as Chewonki Semester School, The Mountain School, or CITYTerm. For the last few weeks of school, seniors often do "Senior Projects" instead of taking classes. Past senior projects have included: recording an album, writing a play, designing a golf course, constructing a sailboat by hand, engineering go-carts, directing a film, intensively studying a culture/language, designing/stitching custom needlepoint belts, and performing a Shakespearean play.
Clubs and organizations
There are over 10 different publications on campus, from news to literary magazines. There are several music groups, including the Chamber Singers, Miltones, Chamber Orchestra, jazz combos and four respectable a cappella groupsâ€"two all-female groups (Epic and Octet), an all-male group (Miltones), and a co-educational group (3FU), which have performed throughout the United States, as well as Europe, Asia, and Africa. Milton Academy is also home to a large jazz program, focused on small combos, that tours South Africa every other year. Beatnik Café, an independently run exhibition of student performances (such as jazz, improvisational skits, poetry readings, and singing), occurs three times a year. In addition to this wide offering of musical groups, theatrical productions provide another outlet for performance with about ten plays being put on each year. The smaller plays produced at the school are referred to as "1212 plays", and are held in Wigg Hall. Also, two student choreographed Dance Concerts are put up each year, the larger one occurring in the winter.
Milton Academy has a number of student activity clubs. Cultural clubs at Milton include GASP (Gay And Straight People), Onyx (black student group), the Asian Society, Latino Association, JSU (Jewish-Student Union), Caribbean Student Association, and Multiracial Experience Club. Students at the academy can start their own clubs if they have a faculty sponsor. The Tibet Club - formerly the Milton Academy chapter of the Students for a Free Tibet - currently sponsors two Tibetan refugee children as part of a five-year commitment and has donated over three hundred dollars in school supplies to Tibetan Schools. Another club, Invisible Hand, is Milton's Capitalist Club. In addition to sponsoring weekly discussions pertaining to Capitalism and Economics, Invisible Hand has taken trips to Harvard Business School and lent $500 worth of microloans via Kiva.org. The co-heads of the Milton Academy Chess Club have tried to make chess an important part of community life for over three years. One of Milton's newer club, Entrepreneurship Club, brings in guest speakers to help facilitate discussions that teach students about creating, growing and managing non-for-profit and for-profit businesses. One of Milton's newest clubs, The Robotics Club, participates in Vex Robotics competitions in the fall and winter. The Robotics Club made it to the state competition after doing well at previous competitions throughout the year.
Milton Academy also has an extensive Outdoor Program. Select students hold a weekly meeting and plan weekend trips for the student body. The trips, which are free of charge, consist of hiking, white water rafting, kayaking, paddle boarding, rock climbing, snow shoeing, sea kayaking, and various other activities. The Outdoor Program also offers an annual longer trip during spring break. The outdoor program has gone to Zion and Joshua Tree national parks, The White Mountains, Acadia National Park, and many other destinations throughout North America. Other schools in the area pale in comparison to Milton Academy's Outdoor Program.
In addition, Milton Academy has a large and highly successful speech and debate team that competes in the Massachusetts Forensic League (MFL), National Catholic Forensic League (CFL or NCFL), and National Forensic League (NFL).
The school also has many political groups, including the M.A.S.A.P and F.L.A.G. (Forward-looking Liberal Action Group).
Athletics
Milton offers 15 interscholastic sports for both boys and girls each, as well as nine intramural teams. Milton is a member of both the Independent School League and the New England Schools Sailing Association division of the Interscholastic Sailing Association. Since 1886, Milton's traditional rival has been the Noble and Greenough School of Dedham. Recently, the ultimate team was ranked seventh in the nation and the varsity football team "entered the 2005 season with the best ten-year record of all ISL prep programs". In the past five years, Milton has won 17 ISL Championships and most recently the boys' tennis team won New England's. The boys' tennis team has won four New England titles in a row. The coed sailing team has won two national championships - one in team racing and one in fleet racing. Milton's boys' hockey team has had several players go on to successful professional careers, most notably 12-year NHLer Marty McInnis and current Boston Bruin Josh Hennessy. In 2011, Milton's boys hockey team won the NEPSAC championship, winning what is widely considered the most prestigious championship in American high school hockey. The team featured two NHL draft picks: Patrick McNally and Rob O'Gara. In 2012, the Girls' Cross Country team placed 1st and the Boys' Cross Country team placed 2nd in the ISL, earning the team's highest finish in 25 years.
Publications
Milton Academy maintains several publications using school facilities. The Milton Paper, the school's independent newspaper, publishes weekly. The Milton Measure, the oldest and official biweekly publication of the school, is entering its 120th year. La Voz ("The Voice"), the school's Spanish language student newspaper, is published quarterly and allows students to write in Spanish about issues that involve the Spanish-speaking community. MagusMabus (colloquially: The Magus) is the school's art & literary magazine. It publishes two full issues a year as well as one smaller "maguette" which contains only poetry. In addition, the Magus hosts open mic nights called Beatnik Cafes. Milton students also publish Helix, a science magazine which is released seasonally. A more recent addition to Milton's publications is Gaia, the official environmental magazine, which publishes about 3 times a year.
Academic and student life facilities
Milton Academy offers a wide variety of student facilities, including performing arts and athletic facilities. The Ruth King Theatre was provided as a gift of novelist Stephen King in memory of his mother and is a 20th century adaptation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The school is home to Ayer Observatory, featuring a 12-foot dome housing a five-inch refractor and a nine-inch reflector. Milton's new visual arts center, completed in the fall of 2011, features the Academy's acclaimed Nesto Gallery, where several famous Boston-area and national artists have displayed their works.
Residential facilities
Approximately half of the Upper School student body consists of boarders. There are eight dorms, four girls dorms (Robbins, Hathaway, Hallowell, and Millet) and four boys dorms (Forbes, Goodwin, Wolcott, and Norris). Each of Milton's residential "houses" has unique traditions, such as holiday caroling, pumpkin carving, "wills night", Rain Soccer on East Campus before dinner on rainy days, barbecues, dodgeball, and dorm bowling to help foster friendship and support within the house. House sizes range from 31 to 48Â students, and students live in the same house for their entire time at Milton.
Sex Scandal
In 2005, the school expelled five members of the boys varsity hockey team for receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old female student in a school locker room. After an investigation, two of the students who were 16 at the time of the alleged incidents were charged with statutory rape. Both accepted plea deals and received no jail time.
These incidents have been the source for several works, including a non-fiction book and fictional Lifetime television movie, both entitled Restless Virgins.
Racist Letters
In 2014, the head of school of Milton Academy and the Milton Police Chief confirmed the existence of an investigation of the sending of racist hate letters to black Milton Academy staff. “I believe this was perpetrated from the inside,†Milton Police Chief Richard G. Wells Jr. said in an interview.
Notable alumni
- Algernon Sidney Badger, government official in New Orleans
- Edward Larrabee Barnes, architect
- Franklin S. Billings, Jr., Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, Judge of the U.S. District Court for Vermont
- Emily and Julia Bruskin of the Claremont Trio
- H. Adams Carter (1932), Editor & Explorer
- Ian Cheney, film writer and film producer
- Tze Chun, Painter, Writer & American Movie Director
- Carson Cistulli, poet and journalist.
- Linwood Clark, U.S. Representative
- Bertha Coombs, general assignment reporter for CNBC
- Caroline Cornish, Newsanchor for WCSH
- T. S. Eliot, Anglo-American poet and playwright. Nobel Prize for Literature "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry" (Stockholm, 1948)
- Buckminster Fuller, Author, Scientific Theorist, & Inventor
- Aaron Goldberg (1991), Pianist
- Austan Goolsbee, economic adviser to United States President Barack Obama
- Frances Hamerstrom, writer and naturalist
- Robert F. Kennedy (1944), former U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator from New York, member of the Kennedy political family
- Ted Kennedy (1950), former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, member of the Kennedy political family
- Alexandra Kerry (1992), film producer and daughter of U.S. Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts
- Reif Larsen (1998), American author best known for his work The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.
- David Lindsay-Abaire, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
- William Lobkowicz, Brewer & Real Estate Restoration Expert
- Hanford MacNider, U.S. General & International Diplomat
- Douglas MacArthur II, U.S. Ambassador to Japan
- Seth Magaziner (2002), RI General Treasurer
- Claire Messud, Author & Novelist Writer
- Peter B. Moore, Molecular Ribosome Expert
- Jehane Noujaim (1992), Egyptian American director of Academy Award nominated documentary film The Square (2013 film)
- Farah Pandith (1986), Special Representative to Muslim Communities for the United States Department of State
- Deval Patrick (1974), 2007-2014 Governor of Massachusetts
- James H. Perkins, former Chairman of Citigroup
- Richard C. Perry (1973), hedge fund investor in Perry Capital which owns Barneys New York
- Elliot Richardson, former U.S. Attorney General
- Rob Sheffield, writer, author & journalist
- Robert E. Sherwood, playwright & screenwriter
- Sherrod E. Skinner, Jr., Medal of Honor Recipient
- Jenny Slate, comedian and actress
- Sarah Sze, Contemporary Artist
- James Taylor, American singer/songwriter and guitarist
- Touré (1989), American novelist, music journalist, cultural critic
- William Robert Ware, prominent American architect
- Richard B. Wigglesworth, U.S. Representative
Betsy Beers, Executive Producer of Grey's Anatomy
Notes
External links
- Milton Academy Official Website
- The Association of Boarding Schools profile
- Boarding School Review
- School Year Abroad
- Chewonki Semester School
- The Mountain School
- CITYTerm