Walt Whitman High School is a public secondary institution serving roughly the western part of Bethesdaâ€"an unincorporated suburban area of Washington, D.C., in Montgomery County, in the U.S. state of Maryland. The school is named in honor of the American poet. It is fed into by Thomas W. Pyle Middle School.
History
The school opened in the fall of 1962 with 1,418 students. It was built on 17 levels, with a center courtyard and a geodesic dome for its gymnasium until renovation in 1992. A Ford Foundation grant underwrote the design and construction of the dome.
During the first school year, Broadway composer and lyricist Meredith Willson visited the school to assist teacher Monica McMindes with her production of The Music Man, which was his creation. In 1981, a 1,200-seat auditorium was added to the school.
Dr. Daryl Shaw served as the inaugural principal from 1962 until 1975. Dr. Jerome Marco was principal from 1975 until his retirement in 2004. Today, the Principal is Dr. Alan Goodwin, who was assistant principal for several years before taking his current post.
Five elementary schools feed Thomas W. Pyle Middle School, which in turn feeds Walt Whitman. The elementary schools are Wood Acres, Bannockburn, Burning Tree, Carderock Springs, and Bradley Hills. The Bethesda area is served by Whitman High School, Walter Johnson High School, and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.
The Black & White
The Black & White is a national, regional and state award-winning newspaper that is entirely student-run and independently financed. In addition to informing students, teachers, parents and community members of relevant issues and events, it provides an open forum for exchanging ideas. It was established in 1961 and produces nine issues each academic year. The newspaper was inducted into the National Scholastic Press Association Hall of Fame in 1991.
In 2001, the staff of the Black & White collaborated to launch the Spectator, a supplementary paper covering sports features and recreation. The Spectator ended production in 2012. The newspaper has gathered numerous national awards for its print edition as well as its website, Black & White Online, which won the NSPA Online Pacemaker Award in 2012. The Black & White has over 60 staff members (print and online positions), including photographers, graphic artists, business and advertising managers.
Performing arts
Music
The Choral Music department has five regular ensembles and smaller chamber groups. The Chamber Choir has been regularly recognized as one of the top groups on the East Coast for many years. Like the Instrumental Music department, the Choral Music department regularly wins straight 1's ("Superior"â€"highest rating) for Level VI (most advanced) choral arrangements in county, state, and national competitions. The Walt Whitman Music department performs two annual concerts, a winter concert, and a spring concert held at Whitman's "Festival of the Arts." In 2009, the Chamber Choir was invited to perform with the Washington Chorus at Strathmore Performing Arts Center and at the Kennedy Center.
Students regularly represent Whitman in honor ensembles and area youth orchestras including Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras (MCYO) and the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras (AYP). The Whitman Jazz Ensemble provides community outreach, presenting biannual concerts and performing at community events. The Music Department takes its large performing ensembles on an annual spring trip to a music festival in the United States or in Canada; past destinations including Boston, Chicago, Toronto and Orlando. Every year, instrumental ensembles travel to the Montgomery County Festival and the Maryland State Festival. In 2009, the Symphonic Orchestra and Wind Ensemble earned straight ones in both festivals. The Instrumental Department also fields a pep band, marching band, and drum-line.
In April 2010, the Walt Whitman Music Department performed at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan. Participating groups included Treble Chorale, Advanced Women's Ensemble, Men's Chorus, Chamber Choir, Advanced Strings, Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Band.
Theater
Whitman has an award winning Drama department that produces a fall musical (with a student Pit orchestra), a winter play, and a student-directed talent show in the spring. The home of the theatre program, the Daryl Shaw Auditorium, holds 1,176 seated audience members. The school is a member of the Critics and Awards Program for High School Students (Cappies) National Capital Area and has been nominated for and won several awards at the annual Gala. In June 2008, Whitman won the Cappie award "Best Musical" for its production of Aida. In June 2010, the school was awarded the award for "Best Play" for its production of Amadeus. In 2012 the department received 10 Cappies nominations for its production of Frankenstein. Cappies were won for stage crew, lights, sound, special effects, and set design.
In 2007, Whitman Drama was recognized as one of the top 50 American high school drama programs by the American High School Theater festival and invited to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland in August 2008. 17 Whitman students traveled to Scotland to perform their production of Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World. In 2011, Whitman Drama returned to the Edinburgh Fringe under the company name Ophiuchus Rising to perform The Laramie Project.
Speech and Debate Team
The Walt Whitman Speech and Debate Team was recognized as one of the top 5 in the nation by the Catholic Forensics League and the National Forensics League in the spring of 2009. It is composed of over 100 members. The team has won numerous championships including the Yale Invitational; the New York City Invitational; the Bronx Round Robin; Valley in Des Moines, Iowa; Columbia Invitational; The Glenbrooks in Illinois; Greenhill in Texas; Blake in Minneapolis; and the MBA Round Robin. The team has also appeared in the final round at tournaments such as Harvard, Emory, and the Tournament of Champions.
The Speech and Debate Team attends around three local tournaments a month, coupled with around 30 travel tournaments across the country throughout the year. In the 2009 Catholic Forensics League National Championship, a Walt Whitman student team was the runner-up in three forensics categories. In 2010, Walt Whitman broke records by qualifying more than 20 debaters to the Tournament of Champions. The team closed out the Public Forum tournament at TOC in 2014.
Shakespeare Club
Shakespeare Festival
Every other year, Whitman holds a schoolwide "Shakespeare Festival" one day in April honoring Shakespeare's life and his work. The festival is organized by students and the English department.
Productions
The Shakespeare Club began producing full, student run productions in the 2007â€"2008 school year. The first was The Taming of the Shrew in March 2008, followed by Macbeth in October 2008 and A Midsummer Night's Dream in March 2009. They performed As You Like It in April 2010, and in May 2011 they put on Twelfth Night. All's Well That Ends Well was performed in December 2011. In March 2015, a production of Romeo & Juliet was performed.
Role in popular culture
Walt Whitman High School was the subject of the 2006 best-selling book The Overachievers. The non-fiction work focuses on students who were members of Whitman's class of 2004, 2005 or 2006. From July 20, 2004 to December 9, 2005, Alexandra Robbins followed eight Whitman juniors and seniors through their daily lives. It uses the Whitman students to show pressure in academia and the negative effect in today's society. Robbins is a Whitman alum of the class of 1994.
In 2005, in wake of Hurricane Katrina, a Whitman student and her two younger sisters (Jackie, Melissa and Jenna Kantor) started Project Backpack, an organization that donated backpacks filled with school supplies and toys to displaced children. The project started with the goal of filling 1,000 backpacks. The sisters worked with their parents, created a website and sent out emails. They told people how to help by donating backpacks and school supplies. Within two weeks, more than 10,000 backpacks were filled with supplies and sent to storm victims. The news about Project Backpack soon spread and over 100 communities across the country gathered supplies to help. More than 50,000 backpacks were sent to hurricane victims. To honor their deed, President Bush invited them to light the National Christmas Tree.
The December 15â€"22, 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report, in which the nation's top 100 public high schools were unveiled, featured three Whitman students on the cover.
Helen Thomas was scheduled for June 2010 to be the commencement speaker at graduation. A few weeks before, she was asked to comment about Israel. She replied, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine," and that "they should go home" to Poland, Germany, America and "everywhere else." Thomas issued an apology on her website, but Principal Alan Goodwin said, in an email to Whitman parents, "Graduation celebrations are not the venue for divisiveness." Thomas was replaced as speaker by Bob Schieffer.
Westboro Baptist Church protest
In April 2009, the school was the site for a protest by the Westboro Baptist Church. Seven members of the church traveled to the school to protest the sexual orientation of Walt Whitman, for whom the school was named. The students organized a counter-protest, in which over 500 Whitman students and alumni participated. The protest was covered by national media. Whitman is one of three high schools in Maryland to be protested by the Westboro Baptist Church, the other two being Glen Burnie High School and Meade High School in Anne Arundel County.
Awards/Rankings and Recognition
Walt Whitman is often noted as one of Maryland's best high schools, and is currently ranked as the #1 high school in the state of Maryland by U.S. News World & Report.
In 2008, Newsweek ranked Whitman at #69 on its "Best High Schools in America" list. In 2009, U.S. News & World Report ranked Whitman as the #44 best school nationwide on its list of "America's Best High Schools"
In 2014, Whitman was ranked the best high school in Maryland and #61 nationwide.
Athletics
Students can choose from 16 varsity sports and several other club sports, such as ice hockey, rowing, and ultimate frisbee. The sports that Walt Whitman offers are:
Fall
- Cross Country
- Football
- Soccer
- Field Hockey
- Golf
- Tennis (girls)
- Lacrosse
- Volleyball (girls)
- Handball
Winter
- Basketball
- Unified Bocce
- Indoor Track
- Swimming and Dive
- Wrestling
Spring
- Baseball
- Tennis (boys)
- Volleyball
- Gymnastics
- Softball
- Track and Field
- Lacrosse
Year-round activities
- Cheerleading
- Poms
- Athletic Training
Athletic championships
- Soccer Division 4A State Champions (Boys) â€" '10, '14
- Basketball Division 4A State Champions (Boys) â€" '06
- Cross Country Maryland State Champions (Girls) â€" '70, '86, '88, '90, '91, '92, '07, '09, '10,'11
- Golf State Champions â€" '99,'07
- Rowing State Champions (Girls) â€" '11, '12
- Rowing Nationals (Girls) â€" '12, '13
- Soccer State Champions (Girls) â€" '85, '86, '92, '04, '13, '14
- Soccer State Champions (Boys)
- Swimming and Diving State Champions (Girls) â€" '12
- Tennis State Champions â€" '06, '08, '09
- Volleyball State Champions (Girls) â€" '98
- Wrestling State Champions â€" '05
Notable alumni
Fund Raising
In 2015, Walt Whitman High School raised funds amounting to $67 523.51 in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s High School Challenge.
References
- ^ "The Black & White". theblackandwhite.net. Retrieved January 21, 2015.Â
- ^ "News Stories". bethesdalittleleague.org. Retrieved January 21, 2015.Â
- ^ http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/winners/opm12.html
- ^ "Project Backpack goes national". Gazette.Â
- ^ Kurtz, Howard (June 8, 2010). "Helen Thomas agrees to bow out as commencement speaker at Walt Whitman High". Washington Post. Retrieved June 7, 2010.Â
- ^ de Vise, Daniel (April 25, 2009). "At Whitman, A Protest Over Poet's Lifestyle". Washington Post.Â
- ^ "Counter Protest of Westboro Baptist Church at Meade High School". Christiaan Conover. Retrieved January 21, 2015.Â
- ^ "Westboro Protesters Met With Opposition Outside Glen Burnie High". cbslocal.com. Retrieved January 21, 2015.Â
- ^ America's Top Public High Schools
- ^ "Best High Schools Rankings - Top High Schools - US News". usnews.com. Retrieved January 21, 2015.Â
- ^ Whitman Named Best Public High School In Maryland | BethesdaNow
- ^ a b c d "Walt Whitman High School Vikings Bethesda MD - Home Page". whitmanathletics.org. Retrieved January 21, 2015.Â
- ^ Belt, Deb (21 April 2015). "Bethesda High School Leads Fundraising for Leukemia Fight". Patch.com. Retrieved 24 April 2015.Â
External links
- Walt Whitman Website