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Miss Porter's School

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Miss Porter's School
Location
Map
Farmington
,
CT

USA
Information
Religious affiliation(s)None
HeadmisstressM. Burch Tracy Ford
Faculty53
Student to teacher ratio8:1
CampusTownship, 55 acres
Color(s)Green, white and black
Athletics29 Interscholastic Sports
MascotNone; the Fighting Daisy is often mistakenly cited and much beloved as an unofficial mascot by many students
TuitionBoarding $38,520, Day $29,360 enrollment = 325 total
218 boarding
107 day
Websitewww.missporters.org

Miss Porter's School, sometimes simply referred to as "Farmington," is a preparatory school for girls, located in Farmington, Connecticut. It was founded by education reformer Sarah Porter in 1843, with an eye to educating young women of the Eastern seaboard.

History

Sarah Porter (August 17, 1813 – February 18, 1900) was the American educator who founded Miss Porter's School for Girls. She was born in Farmington, Connecticut to Congregational minister and famed preacher, the Rev. Noah Porter (1781-1866) and his wife, Mehitable "Hetty" Meigs Porter (1786-1874). She was educated at Farmington Academy and, uncharacteristically for women of the time, studied privately with Yale College professors. She taught in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania, and returned to Connecticut in the 1840s to found a female counterpart to Simeon Hart's Academy for Boys. Initially she had only 25 students, but because of the school's expansive curriculum, including the sciences as well as the humanities, the daughters of the affluent soon made it their school of choice, and MPS quickly expanded. Porter was an opponent of women's suffrage but promoted other legal reforms for women. She was a serious, life-long scholar who spoke four languages and learned Hebrew in her 80s.

Sarah Porter's older brother, Noah Porter, was President of Yale College from 1871 to 1886.

Miss Porter's School, still located in Farmington, today continues to operate as a private college preparatory school for young sophisticated mademoiselles.

File:Mainb.jpg
Main Building

School endowment

The endowment is currently at a market value of $95 million. On September 20, 2005, Miss Porter's launched a new campaign, Moonbeams Over Manhattan. The intention is to increase the school's endowment to $100 million.

File:MpsLibrary.jpg
Miss Porter's Library

Athletics

Fall Interscholastics

Winter Interscholastics

Spring Interscholastics

Notable alumnae

Miss Porter's slang and jargon

  • Ancient - Alumna
  • Big-D - Formal Dress
  • Congo - Congregational Church used as a meeting house
  • Daisy - Daisy Cafe
  • Day Studs - Day Students
  • Little-D - Semi-Formal Dress
  • Milk Lunch - Morning Break
  • The Keepers - Keepers of Tradition (Once known as the "Terrible Ten;" reinstated as "The Oprishniki," changed to "Keepers" in 2005)
  • P.C. - Physical Conditioning Sports Class
  • Perilhettes - 12-Senior a capella group, usually performing at certain traditions or events
  • Prescott - Visiting Speaker Program sponsored by The Prescott Fund
  • Salma - Salmagundy, School Newspaper
  • Sit-Down Dinner - Semi-Formal Dinner
  • Traditions - Events designed to welcome students and bring them into the community and to bid seniors farewell as they leave Miss Porter's
  • Old Girl - Students that have attended the school for more than 1 year
  • New Girl - Students that have attended the school for less than 1 year
  • K-Telle - Crazy dress, including as many bright colors, sequins, and bold patterns mixed together as possible - an element of tradition.
  • Haggis Baggis-School magazine that features artworks of the students such as fiction stories and paintings.
  • Wilkie Bilkie-Similar to a prescott, an annual school gathering where an artist comes to speak to the students.
  • The Nonie-The area outside the theater where school dances were formally held (They are now held in the gym)
  • Olin-The Science, Math, and Arts building
  • MaMa-The New Art Movement of the School after Plasda

Miss Porter's in fiction

  • In the movie Holiday, the lead female, played by Katharine Hepburn, went to Miss Porter's.
  • In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, the record for Joan (played by Julia Stiles) shows that she attended Miss Porter's though the record incorrectly locates the School in Pennsylvania.
  • In the movie, The Skulls, the lead female went to Miss Porter's.
  • In the musical Rent, one of the leads, Harvard-educated lesbian lawyer Joanne, attended and learned to tango with the French ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's.
  • In the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when Buffy's mother thinks it would be best to send Buffy away to school, she picks up an application to Miss Porter's. Buffy incorrectly believes it is a Catholic girls school.
  • In the television series Dynasty Blake Carrington's headstrong daughter Fallon Carrington (Pamela Sue Martin) is a graduate of Miss Porter's.
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