Horace Mann School
Encyclopedia
Horace Mann School is an independent
college preparatory school
in New York City
, New York, United States founded in 1887 known for its rigorous course of studies. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League
, educating students from all across the New York tri-state area from nursery school to the twelfth grade. The Upper, Middle, and Lower Divisions are located in Riverdale
, a neighborhood of the Bronx, while the Nursery School is located in Manhattan
and the John Dorr Nature Laboratory, a 275 acre (1.11288 km2) campus in Washington Depot, Connecticut
, is the school's outdoor and community education center. The tuition for the 2011-2012 school year is $37,275. Forbes Magazine ranks Horace Mann as the second best preparatory school in the country.
at Columbia University
. Its first location was a building at 9 University Place in Manhattan
's Greenwich Village
. The school moved in 1901 to 120th Street in Morningside Heights. Columbia University followed suit soon afterwards, moving northwards to its present campus. The name of the school can still be seen on the northern-most building at the Columbia campus, named Horace Mann Hall, after education reformer Horace Mann
. However, Horace Mann was becoming a school in its own right instead of a teaching laboratory, and it became more independent of the Columbia University and Teachers College. The Teachers College therefore created the Lincoln School, located on 110th Street, across the street from Central Park
, to continue its experiments in teaching.
Shedding its co-educational roots, the school split into separate all-male and all-female schools. In 1914, the Boys' School moved to 246th Street in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and during the 1940s it severed formal ties with Columbia University and became Horace Mann School. The Horace Mann School for Girls remained at Teachers College, and then merged with the Lincoln School in 1940, and finally closed in 1946.
The New York School for Nursery Years (founded in 1954 on 90th Street in Manhattan) became the Horace Mann School for Nursery Years in 1968, and was co-ed. In 1972, Horace Mann merged with the Barnard School, next door in Riverdale, to form the Horace Mann-Barnard Lower School for kindergarten
through grade six
, located on the former Barnard School campus. At that point, only the lower school was co-ed. That changed in 1975, when Horace Mann School returned to its roots as a co-educational learning environment and began admitting females to the Upper School. The Class of 1976 is Horace Mann School's last all-male class. In 1999, the sixth grade moved from the Horace Mann-Barnard campus to the main 246th Street campus and formed a distinct Middle Division along with the seventh
and eighth grade
s.
, which is usually translated today as "Magna est veritas et prævalebit," or will prevail. The school mascot is a lion, possibly a holdover from the days when the school was associated with Columbia University
, whose mascot is also a lion. The Swim and Water Polo Teams have adopted the Sea Lion
as their unofficial mascots, as the Varsity Ski Team has the Mountain Lion.
by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Current tuition for students in the Lower Division through the Upper Division is approximately $40,000 a year. Financial aid at the school is based on need; no merit scholarships are awarded. For the 2010-2011 academic year, 17% of the students received more than $7,400,000 in aid.
Each division of the school has its own Division Head. The Middle and Upper Divisions have separate student government bodies. The entire school is overseen by a Head of School. The ninth and current Head is Dr. Thomas M. Kelly, who previously served as Superintendent
of Schools in Valhalla, New York
. Kelly succeeded Dr. Eileen Mullady (who is currently the head of the Pacific Ridge School
in Carlsbad, CA), on July 1, 2005. Formerly of Princeton University
and the Lawrenceville School
, Dr. Mullady was the namesake of one of the new buildings erected under her term. Prior to Dr. Mullady, the long-standing Head was the late R. Inslee Clark, Jr.
, previously Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale University
.
The current Horace Mann Nursery Division Head is Marcia Levy, who replaced Patricia Zuroski when she was appointed to the position of Director of Diversity Initiatives. The current Lower Division Head is Wendy Steinthal, replacing Dr. Steven B. Tobolsky, who departed in June 2007 to run the Chestnut Hill School
, an elite N-6 prep school outside Boston. The current Middle Division Head is Robin Ann Ingram, and the current Upper Division head is Dr. David Schiller. Glenn Sherratt is the current Director of the John Dorr Nature Laboratory.
Students in the Upper Division are required to study English, World History, United States History, Biology, Chemistry and/or Physics, Geometry, Algebra II and Trigonometry, and also meet various requirements in the Arts, Computer Science, Health & Counseling, and Physical Education. Students must go beyond these basic requirements in at least some, if not all, subjects. They are also required to take at least three years of either French, German, Japanese, Latin, or Spanish. Additional classes in Greek
, Italian
, Mandarin, and Russian
are offered.
Starting in eleventh grade, students have more flexibility with their requirements and can choose from courses in Economics, Psychology, Classical History, Government, Religion, Political Philosophy, United States Legal History, Calculus, Statistics, Science and Public Policy, among other elective classes.
Independent Study and Senior Projects, where students create their own coursework and present their findings in weekly meetings, are also common. Additionally, many students develop original research projects with faculty at Columbia University, Cornell University Medical Center, NYU, and Rockefeller University.
Horace Mann has two major instrumental ensembles: The Horace Mann Orchestra
and the Horace Mann Jazz Band
. The Jazz Band program is also split into two ensembles: the Contemporary Directions Ensemble and the Creative Arts Philharmonic. Each ensemble performs at least three to four concerts per year, culminating in a trip abroad. Recent trips have taken the Glee Club and Orchestra to Prague, Germany, France and Spain. Horace Mann also has an established Glee Club
, which performs several concerts each year, including past performances at Carnegie Hall
, Symphony Space, and Alice Tully Hall
of Lincoln Center. The Jazz Band has performed at many famous jazz clubs including Birdland and B.B. King's.
CPR certification
, as well as a swim test, in order to graduate. Horace Mann students are also required to complete at least 80 hours of community service, with at least 40 hours in ninth and tenth grades and 40 hours in eleventh and twelfth. In eighth grade, one out-of-school project or three in-school projects are necessary for graduation to the ninth grade; in sixth and seventh grades a homeroom project is done cooperatively. In the Lower and Nursery Divisions, there is no community service requirement, although there is an annual "Caring-in-Action" day dedicated to community service that students and their families can attend.
or SSAT
test.
Sixth grade is Horace Mann's largest entry point, with between 50 and 55 places available each year. In the ninth grade, Horace Mann traditionally enrolls between 40 and 45 new students. A smaller number of students are accepted in other grades, although there are no admissions to the twelfth grade.
The Wall Street Journal
ranks Horace Mann as the fourth best high school in the United States, as measured by student admission rates to exclusive colleges. Worth
magazine ranked Horace Mann seventh out of all the nation's high schools based on the proportion of graduates attending Harvard
, Yale
and Princeton
Universities.
The Record, established in 1903, is the weekly, student-run newspaper. Throughout its history, The Record has won national journalism awards and has been staffed by students who went on to become distinguished journalists and authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Lewis
(class of 1944), Richard Kluger
(class of 1952), Robert Caro
(class of 1953) and David Leonhardt
(class of 1990). In 1954, Horace Mann made national headlines for translating a copy of The Record into Russian and distributing it in the USSR. The purpose of the exercise was to show Russian schoolchildren what life in America was like. The staff purposely kept in an article about the Horace Mann soccer team's losing one of its games to demonstrate the operation of an independent free press
. The American Scholastic Press Association twice honored The Record as the "Best High School Weekly Newspaper" for 2001-2002 (Volume 99) and 2003-2004 (Volume 101). It was also named a National Pacemaker in 2004 (Volume 101) and in 2006 was a Columbia Scholastic Press Association
Gold Medalist (Volume 103). The Record is published every Friday during the academic year and can be found online here.
The Horace Mann Review, now in its twentieth volume, is a journal of opinion on current events, politics, public policy, and culture. The Review covers issues from unique and otherwise unexamined perspectives. The publication has paying subscribers throughout the nation and abroad and has been the recipient of numerous awards for excellence in journalism. In April 2001, the American Scholastic Press Association (ASPA) honored the Review with its award for Best Magazine. The Review's 2005-2006 volume was honored with a first place finish in the American Scholastic Press Awards critique. The Review is a finalist for the National Scholastic Press Association's Magazine Pacemaker of the Year award for 2007, the highest honor in high school journalism. The Review was again awarded the ASPA's Best Magazine Award in 2009 for its eighteenth volume.
The Mannikin is the yearbook of the Horace Mann School. Traditional sections include Student Life, Underclassmen, Seniors (each graduate receives a half-page to design as they wish), Athletics, Faculty, and Advertisements. At 560 pages, the Mannikin is one of the largest high school yearbooks in New York State. In addition, the Mannikin has won numerous awards from the American Scholastic Press Association.
Other school publications include: Folio 51, the magazine dedicated to gender issues, HM Voyager, the travel
publication, Manuscript and Word, the creative poetry and prose publications respectively, Insight, the photography publication, Edible, the culinary publication, Images, an art magazine, the Thespian, a theatre publication, Cinemann, a magazine related to current movies, Lola's Kitchen, a one-page periodical published by the Gay Straight Alliance, and InsideOut, a health publication. In addition, a literary-arts magazine called Muse, featuring the work of Middle School students, is published each year.
, a division of the greater New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), which comprises all the private schools in the New York State.
Fieldston, Riverdale
, and Horace Mann together are known as the "Hilltop schools," as all three are located within two miles (3 km) of each other in the Riverdale-Fieldston
section of the Bronx, on a hill above Van Cortlandt Park
. The three also share a great interscholastic sports rivalry; Horace Mann's annual charity basketball game, the Buzzell Game, is almost always versus Riverdale, and sometimes Fieldston.
^- boys' volleyball takes place during the spring, while girls' takes place in the fall
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
college preparatory school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, New York, United States founded in 1887 known for its rigorous course of studies. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League
Ivy Preparatory School League
The Ivy Preparatory School League, like the Ivy League for universities, was originally an athletic conference, not a scholastic one, for a group of New York City, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk county university-preparatory schools: Hackley School, Tarrytown, Trinity School, Manhattan, Riverdale...
, educating students from all across the New York tri-state area from nursery school to the twelfth grade. The Upper, Middle, and Lower Divisions are located in Riverdale
Riverdale, Bronx
Riverdale is an affluent residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx in New York City. Riverdale contains the northernmost point in New York City.-History:...
, a neighborhood of the Bronx, while the Nursery School is located in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and the John Dorr Nature Laboratory, a 275 acre (1.11288 km2) campus in Washington Depot, Connecticut
Washington, Connecticut
Washington is a rural town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, in the New England region of the United States. The population was 3,596 at the 2000 census. Washington is known for its picturesque countryside, historic architecture, and active civic and cultural life...
, is the school's outdoor and community education center. The tuition for the 2011-2012 school year is $37,275. Forbes Magazine ranks Horace Mann as the second best preparatory school in the country.
History
The school was founded in 1887 by Nicholas Murray Butler as a co-educational experimental and developmental unit of Teachers CollegeTeachers College, Columbia University
Teachers College, Columbia University is a graduate school of education located in New York City, New York...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. Its first location was a building at 9 University Place in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
. The school moved in 1901 to 120th Street in Morningside Heights. Columbia University followed suit soon afterwards, moving northwards to its present campus. The name of the school can still be seen on the northern-most building at the Columbia campus, named Horace Mann Hall, after education reformer Horace Mann
Horace Mann
Horace Mann was an American education reformer, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827 to 1833. He served in the Massachusetts Senate from 1834 to 1837. In 1848, after serving as Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education since its creation, he was...
. However, Horace Mann was becoming a school in its own right instead of a teaching laboratory, and it became more independent of the Columbia University and Teachers College. The Teachers College therefore created the Lincoln School, located on 110th Street, across the street from Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, to continue its experiments in teaching.
Shedding its co-educational roots, the school split into separate all-male and all-female schools. In 1914, the Boys' School moved to 246th Street in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, and during the 1940s it severed formal ties with Columbia University and became Horace Mann School. The Horace Mann School for Girls remained at Teachers College, and then merged with the Lincoln School in 1940, and finally closed in 1946.
The New York School for Nursery Years (founded in 1954 on 90th Street in Manhattan) became the Horace Mann School for Nursery Years in 1968, and was co-ed. In 1972, Horace Mann merged with the Barnard School, next door in Riverdale, to form the Horace Mann-Barnard Lower School for kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
through grade six
Sixth grade
Sixth grade is a year of education in the United States and some other nations. The sixth grade is the sixth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 11 – 12 years old...
, located on the former Barnard School campus. At that point, only the lower school was co-ed. That changed in 1975, when Horace Mann School returned to its roots as a co-educational learning environment and began admitting females to the Upper School. The Class of 1976 is Horace Mann School's last all-male class. In 1999, the sixth grade moved from the Horace Mann-Barnard campus to the main 246th Street campus and formed a distinct Middle Division along with the seventh
Seventh grade
Seventh grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The seventh grade is the seventh school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 12–13 years old. Traditionally, seventh grade was the next-to-last year of elementary school...
and eighth grade
Eighth grade
Eighth grade is a year of education in the United States, Canada, Australia and other nations. Students are usually 13 - 14 years old. The eighth grade is typically the final grade before high school, and the ninth grade of public and private education, following kindergarten and subsequent grades...
s.
Motto and mascot
The school's motto is "Magna est veritas et prævalet," meaning "Great is the truth, and it prevails." It comes from the King James version of the Old TestamentOld Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, which is usually translated today as "Magna est veritas et prævalebit," or will prevail. The school mascot is a lion, possibly a holdover from the days when the school was associated with Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, whose mascot is also a lion. The Swim and Water Polo Teams have adopted the Sea Lion
Sea Lion
Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear-flaps, long fore-flippers, the ability to walk on all fours, and short thick hair. Together with the fur seal, they comprise the family Otariidae, or eared seals. There are six extant and one extinct species in five genera...
as their unofficial mascots, as the Varsity Ski Team has the Mountain Lion.
Institution
Divisions
There are four divisions of Horace Mann, all co-educational: a Nursery Division (three year olds through kindergarten) located on 90th Street in Manhattan, a Lower Division (kindergarten through fifth grades) on the Horace Mann campus on Tibbett Avenue in Riverdale, a Middle Division (sixth through eighth grades) on the 246th Street campus in Riverdale, and an Upper Division (ninth through twelfth grades) also on the 246th Street campus. There is also the John Dorr Nature Laboratory, located on 275 acres (1.11288 km2) of land in Washington Depot, Connecticut, used for extended field trips for classes of students starting in second grade and an orientation program for new students entering the Middle or Upper Divisions. The Dorr facility was recently renovated and is currently LEED-certifiedLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design consists of a suite of rating systems for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, homes and neighborhoods....
by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Current tuition for students in the Lower Division through the Upper Division is approximately $40,000 a year. Financial aid at the school is based on need; no merit scholarships are awarded. For the 2010-2011 academic year, 17% of the students received more than $7,400,000 in aid.
Each division of the school has its own Division Head. The Middle and Upper Divisions have separate student government bodies. The entire school is overseen by a Head of School. The ninth and current Head is Dr. Thomas M. Kelly, who previously served as Superintendent
Superintendent (education)
In education in the United States, a superintendent is an individual who has executive oversight and administration rights, usually within an educational entity or organization....
of Schools in Valhalla, New York
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is an unincorporated hamlet and census-designated place that is located within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York, in Westchester County. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
. Kelly succeeded Dr. Eileen Mullady (who is currently the head of the Pacific Ridge School
Pacific Ridge School
Pacific Ridge School is an independent co-educational University preparatory school for day students in grades 7–12. The school is located in the exclusive Bressi Ranch community of Carlsbad, a coastal resort town located in North San Diego County...
in Carlsbad, CA), on July 1, 2005. Formerly of Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and the Lawrenceville School
Lawrenceville School
The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational, independent preparatory boarding school for grades 9–12 located on in the historic community of Lawrenceville, in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, U.S., five miles southwest of Princeton....
, Dr. Mullady was the namesake of one of the new buildings erected under her term. Prior to Dr. Mullady, the long-standing Head was the late R. Inslee Clark, Jr.
R. Inslee Clark, Jr.
Russell Inslee "Ink" Clark, Jr. was an educator, administrator, and a key player in the transition of the Ivy League into co-education in the 1960s.-Personal life:Clark was born in 1935 and graduated from Garden City High School in 1953....
, previously Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
.
The current Horace Mann Nursery Division Head is Marcia Levy, who replaced Patricia Zuroski when she was appointed to the position of Director of Diversity Initiatives. The current Lower Division Head is Wendy Steinthal, replacing Dr. Steven B. Tobolsky, who departed in June 2007 to run the Chestnut Hill School
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of...
, an elite N-6 prep school outside Boston. The current Middle Division Head is Robin Ann Ingram, and the current Upper Division head is Dr. David Schiller. Glenn Sherratt is the current Director of the John Dorr Nature Laboratory.
Academics
Horace Mann is known for its large number of college level courses. The school offers 20 Advanced Placement courses and 10 foreign languages. Its 220 faculty members hold 210 master's degrees and 34 doctoral degrees.Students in the Upper Division are required to study English, World History, United States History, Biology, Chemistry and/or Physics, Geometry, Algebra II and Trigonometry, and also meet various requirements in the Arts, Computer Science, Health & Counseling, and Physical Education. Students must go beyond these basic requirements in at least some, if not all, subjects. They are also required to take at least three years of either French, German, Japanese, Latin, or Spanish. Additional classes in Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Mandarin, and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
are offered.
Starting in eleventh grade, students have more flexibility with their requirements and can choose from courses in Economics, Psychology, Classical History, Government, Religion, Political Philosophy, United States Legal History, Calculus, Statistics, Science and Public Policy, among other elective classes.
Independent Study and Senior Projects, where students create their own coursework and present their findings in weekly meetings, are also common. Additionally, many students develop original research projects with faculty at Columbia University, Cornell University Medical Center, NYU, and Rockefeller University.
Arts
Horace Mann has an extensive arts program. The offerings include courses in the performing and visual arts. At least 1.5 arts credits are required for graduation, with at least one half-credit course in performance/studio arts and one half-credit course in art history/appreciation.Horace Mann has two major instrumental ensembles: The Horace Mann Orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
and the Horace Mann Jazz Band
Jazz band
A jazz band is a musical ensemble that plays jazz music. Jazz bands usually consist of a rhythm section and a horn section, in the early days often trumpet, trombone, and clarinet with rhythm section of piano, banjo, bass or tuba, and drums.-Eras:SwingDuring the swing era in the mid-twentieth...
. The Jazz Band program is also split into two ensembles: the Contemporary Directions Ensemble and the Creative Arts Philharmonic. Each ensemble performs at least three to four concerts per year, culminating in a trip abroad. Recent trips have taken the Glee Club and Orchestra to Prague, Germany, France and Spain. Horace Mann also has an established Glee Club
Glee club
A glee club is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs—glees—by trios or quartets. In the late 19th Century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition...
, which performs several concerts each year, including past performances at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, Symphony Space, and Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...
of Lincoln Center. The Jazz Band has performed at many famous jazz clubs including Birdland and B.B. King's.
Non-academic requirements
All students are required to take American Red CrossAmerican Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
CPR certification
Certification
Certification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization. This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment, or audit...
, as well as a swim test, in order to graduate. Horace Mann students are also required to complete at least 80 hours of community service, with at least 40 hours in ninth and tenth grades and 40 hours in eleventh and twelfth. In eighth grade, one out-of-school project or three in-school projects are necessary for graduation to the ninth grade; in sixth and seventh grades a homeroom project is done cooperatively. In the Lower and Nursery Divisions, there is no community service requirement, although there is an annual "Caring-in-Action" day dedicated to community service that students and their families can attend.
Admission
Admission to Horace Mann is highly selective. Decisions are based on an applicant's recent grades, an interview, and the candidate's score on either the ISEEIndependent School Entrance Examination
The Independent School Entrance Examination, or ISEE, is an entrance exam used by many independent schools and magnet schools in the United States. Developed and administered by the Educational Records Bureau, the ISEE has three levels: the Lower level, for entrance in grades 5-6; Middle level,...
or SSAT
Secondary School Admission Test
The Secondary School Admission Test, or SSAT, is an admissions test administered by the Secondary School Admission Test Board to students in grades 5-11 to help determine placement into independent or private junior high and high schools....
test.
Sixth grade is Horace Mann's largest entry point, with between 50 and 55 places available each year. In the ninth grade, Horace Mann traditionally enrolls between 40 and 45 new students. A smaller number of students are accepted in other grades, although there are no admissions to the twelfth grade.
Rankings
Forbes Magazine ranks Horace Mann as the second best preparatory school in the country.The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
ranks Horace Mann as the fourth best high school in the United States, as measured by student admission rates to exclusive colleges. Worth
Worth (magazine)
Worth is an American wealth management magazine for high net worth individuals. It is published on a bi-monthly basis and circulated to over 110,000 recipients.-History:Worth was founded in 1992 as a wealth management magazine for high net worth individuals...
magazine ranked Horace Mann seventh out of all the nation's high schools based on the proportion of graduates attending Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Universities.
Student life
Co-curricular activities are an integral part of Horace Mann. Clubs give students the opportunity to produce publications, hone their debating skills, participate in activism and much more. The school has a considerable number of clubs, especially in the Upper Division. Prominent clubs include:
|
A cappella A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato... group) Inner City Inner City is an American house and techno group, formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1987. The group is composed of the record producer and composer Kevin Saunderson and the Chicago, Illinois native Paris Grey... Hope Manualism (hand music) Manualism is the little-known art of playing music by squeezing air through the hands. Because the sound produced has a distinctly flatulent tone, such music is usually presented as a form of musical comedy or parody... Club (Horacemanualism) |
Mock trial A Mock Trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting of volunteers as role players to test theories or... Model Congress Model Congress gives students a chance to engage in a role-playing simulation of the United States Congress. Such events are hosted by the Congress itself, Rutgers University, American International College, Columbia University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, The... Model United Nations Model United Nations is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about current events, topics in international relations, diplomacy and the United Nations agenda.... (MUN) Service-learning Service-learning is a method of teaching, learning and reflecting, frequently youth service, throughout the community. As a teaching method, it falls under the philosophy of experiential education... Team |
School government
The new main branch of the school government is called the Community Council, an open forum that will include members of the Faculty, four elected officials from each grade, and leaders of certain clubs. In addition, there is an elected Student Body President (SBP) and Student Body Vice-President (SBVP).Student publications
Horace Mann also has a significant number of student publications. Many of them have won national awards. Prominent publications include:The Record, established in 1903, is the weekly, student-run newspaper. Throughout its history, The Record has won national journalism awards and has been staffed by students who went on to become distinguished journalists and authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis
Anthony Lewis is a prominent liberal intellectual, writing for The New York Times op-ed page and The New York Review of Books, among other publications. He was previously a columnist for the Times . Before that he was London bureau chief , Washington, D.C...
(class of 1944), Richard Kluger
Richard Kluger
Richard Kluger worked as a journalist before becoming an accomplished Pulitzer Prize-winning author and book publisher.-Journalism:...
(class of 1952), Robert Caro
Robert Caro
Robert Allan Caro is an American journalist and author known for his celebrated biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson...
(class of 1953) and David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt is the Washington bureau chief of The New York Times. He joined The Times in 1999 and wrote the "Economics Scene" column, and for the Times Sunday Magazine. Before coming to The Times, he wrote for Business Week and The Washington Post...
(class of 1990). In 1954, Horace Mann made national headlines for translating a copy of The Record into Russian and distributing it in the USSR. The purpose of the exercise was to show Russian schoolchildren what life in America was like. The staff purposely kept in an article about the Horace Mann soccer team's losing one of its games to demonstrate the operation of an independent free press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
. The American Scholastic Press Association twice honored The Record as the "Best High School Weekly Newspaper" for 2001-2002 (Volume 99) and 2003-2004 (Volume 101). It was also named a National Pacemaker in 2004 (Volume 101) and in 2006 was a Columbia Scholastic Press Association
Columbia Scholastic Press Association
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association is an international student press association, founded in 1925, whose goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques and award programs...
Gold Medalist (Volume 103). The Record is published every Friday during the academic year and can be found online here.
The Horace Mann Review, now in its twentieth volume, is a journal of opinion on current events, politics, public policy, and culture. The Review covers issues from unique and otherwise unexamined perspectives. The publication has paying subscribers throughout the nation and abroad and has been the recipient of numerous awards for excellence in journalism. In April 2001, the American Scholastic Press Association (ASPA) honored the Review with its award for Best Magazine. The Review's 2005-2006 volume was honored with a first place finish in the American Scholastic Press Awards critique. The Review is a finalist for the National Scholastic Press Association's Magazine Pacemaker of the Year award for 2007, the highest honor in high school journalism. The Review was again awarded the ASPA's Best Magazine Award in 2009 for its eighteenth volume.
The Mannikin is the yearbook of the Horace Mann School. Traditional sections include Student Life, Underclassmen, Seniors (each graduate receives a half-page to design as they wish), Athletics, Faculty, and Advertisements. At 560 pages, the Mannikin is one of the largest high school yearbooks in New York State. In addition, the Mannikin has won numerous awards from the American Scholastic Press Association.
Other school publications include: Folio 51, the magazine dedicated to gender issues, HM Voyager, the travel
Travel
Travel is the movement of people or objects between relatively distant geographical locations. 'Travel' can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.-Etymology:...
publication, Manuscript and Word, the creative poetry and prose publications respectively, Insight, the photography publication, Edible, the culinary publication, Images, an art magazine, the Thespian, a theatre publication, Cinemann, a magazine related to current movies, Lola's Kitchen, a one-page periodical published by the Gay Straight Alliance, and InsideOut, a health publication. In addition, a literary-arts magazine called Muse, featuring the work of Middle School students, is published each year.
Interscholastic leagues
Horace Mann School is a part of the Ivy Preparatory School LeagueIvy Preparatory School League
The Ivy Preparatory School League, like the Ivy League for universities, was originally an athletic conference, not a scholastic one, for a group of New York City, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk county university-preparatory schools: Hackley School, Tarrytown, Trinity School, Manhattan, Riverdale...
, a division of the greater New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), which comprises all the private schools in the New York State.
Fieldston, Riverdale
Riverdale Country School
Riverdale Country School is a co-educational, independent, college-preparatory day school in New York City. One of the most competitive private schools in the nation, it is located on two campuses covering more than in the Riverdale section of The Bronx, New York.-History:Founded in 1907 by Dr...
, and Horace Mann together are known as the "Hilltop schools," as all three are located within two miles (3 km) of each other in the Riverdale-Fieldston
Ethical Culture Fieldston School
The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as "Fieldston", is a private "independent" school in New York City and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. It has about 1600 students and a staff of 400 people , led by Dr. Damian J...
section of the Bronx, on a hill above Van Cortlandt Park
Van Cortlandt Park
Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the Bronx in New York City. It is the fourth largest park in New York City, behind Pelham Bay Park, Flushing Meadows Park and Staten Island Greenbelt....
. The three also share a great interscholastic sports rivalry; Horace Mann's annual charity basketball game, the Buzzell Game, is almost always versus Riverdale, and sometimes Fieldston.
Sports teams
| Sport | Level | Season | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseball Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond... |
V, JV, MD | Spring | Boys' |
| Basketball Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules... |
V, JV, MD | Winter | Boys', Girls' |
| Crew Sport rowing Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water... |
V, JV | Spring | Boys', Girls', Coed |
| Cross-Country Cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road... |
V, JV, MD | Fall | Girls', Boys', Coed (MD Only) |
| Field Hockey Field hockey Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks... |
V, JV, MD | Fall | Girls' |
| Fencing | V, JV | Winter | Boys', Girls' |
| Football American football American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by... |
V, JV, MD | Fall | Boys' |
| Golf Golf Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes.... |
V | Spring | Coed |
| Gymnastics Gymnastics Gymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body... |
V, JV | Winter | Girls' |
| Lacrosse Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh... |
V, MD | Spring | Boys', Girls' |
| Soccer | V, JV, MD | Fall | Boys', Girls' |
| Skiing Skiing Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding.... |
V | Winter | Boys', Girls' |
| Softball Softball Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand... |
V, JV, MD | Spring | Girls' |
| Squash Squash (sport) Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball... |
V | Winter | Coed |
| Swimming Swimming (sport) Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native... |
V, JV, MD | Winter | Boys', Girls' |
| Tennis Tennis Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all... |
V, JV, MD | Fall (Girls'), Spring (Boys') | Boys', Girls' |
| Track (indoor) | V, JV | Winter | Boys', Girls' |
| Track (outdoor) | V, JV, MD | Spring | Boys', Girls', Coed (MD Only) |
| Ultimate Ultimate (sport) Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby... (Frisbee) |
V, JV | Spring | Coed |
| Volleyball Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive... |
V, JV, MD | Fall, Spring | Girls', Boys'^ |
| Water Polo Water polo Water polo is a team water sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Game play involves swimming, treading water , players passing the ball while being defended by opponents, and scoring by throwing into a... |
V, JV, MD | Fall | Coed |
| Wrestling Scholastic wrestling Scholastic wrestling, sometimes known in the United States as Folkstyle wrestling, is a style of amateur wrestling practised at the high school and middle school levels in the United States. This wrestling style is essentially Collegiate wrestling with some slight modifications. It is currently... |
V, JV, MD | Winter | Coed |
- V = VarsityVarsity teamIn the United States and Canada, varsity sports teams are the principal athletic teams representing a college, university, high school or other secondary school. Such teams compete against the principal athletic teams at other colleges/universities, or in the case of secondary schools, against...
, JV = Junior VarsityJunior varsityPrimarily in North America, junior varsity or JV players are the members of a team who are not the main players in a competition , usually at the high school and college levels in the United States and Canada. The main players comprise the varsity team...
, MD = Middle Division
^- boys' volleyball takes place during the spring, while girls' takes place in the fall