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| David and Kay Dougherty |
I am proud to welcome you to the new updated and expanded website of The Hill School. I believe that it will introduce our School well to you, and will encourage you to learn more about it. Indeed this newly constructed site presents in words and pictures much of the history, tradition, and ongoing excellence of this 161-year-old school - in fact almost everything, except, of course, the unique spirit of the place, the Hillness of it.
For now, if I were to point to one image that captures that spirit, it would be our Quadrangle, four buildings around a great lawn that are literally and symbolically the heart of The Hill School. Let me tell you about it.
The Quad crackles with the advanced technology of the Ryan Library, and whispers with the dark oak solemnity of the Alumni Memorial Chapel (dedicated in 1904); it bellows and shrieks with the zeal of Upper School dormitory pillow fights, and ponders anew the participles and theorems of the Academic Center classroom. And in its center, Frisbees, Adirondack chairs, lacrosse balls, rock bands, strawberry shortcakes, snowballs, hot dogs and hamburgers - the full velocity of life at The Hill - parade.
In that Quad you will see that The Hill is old, and esteems the past, regarding highly the men and women who created The Family Boarding School in 1851 (a few months before Millard Fillmore entered the White House and a decade before the Civil War erupted in South Carolina), and honoring those who have nourished and sustained it through world wars, depressions, epidemics, fires, and all the whips and scorns of time for 160 years. Thus it is fitting that in the chapel, for example, we learn anew the ideals and principles, those "Whatsoever things are true" of our motto, which have guided men and women of virtue for hundreds, even thousands, of years: honesty, respect for others, accountability for our actions, hard work, fair play, humility - values of such durability and timelessness that we teach them just as vigorously today as we did in 1851.
So too you will see in that Quadrangle that this great old school also honors the present, fully aware that our students are young men and young women of the 21st century, with all of the opportunities and challenges that it affords. With innovative technology, state-of-the-art buildings, a curriculum that reflects the best knowledge of what to teach and how to teach it, and most importantly an extraordinary faculty who exhaustively strive to understand the needs of our young people and to support them as they learn each day. The Hill does not dwell in the past, but learns from it to create a thoroughly modern school that validates its mission every day.
And why? To prepare our students for the future. Ultimately, great old schools are about tomorrow. A school like The Hill is not great because it is old; it is old because it is great, and has set the standard for excellence for years. As before, we will prepare our students not just for tomorrow (for that quiz, that test, that big game), or for a year or two from now (when they apply to college or enroll in a great university), but for ages hence (when they will apply for their first real job, accept appointment as president of the company, marry, have children, live, die).
That is what a great education at a great school is about. It is what you will find here at The Hill. Just walk within our Quadrangle, and you can see it all. You can see the past, the present, and the future.
That's what you'll see and feel when you visit us here in Pottstown. I would be proud to welcome you someday to our school. Meantime, please enjoy our dynamic new site.
David R. Dougherty
Headmaster of The Hill School
Read more about the leadership of Headmaster Dougherty.