The Hockaday School
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The Hockaday School is an independent, non-religious college preparatory day and boarding school for girls located in Dallas, Texas. The boarding school is for girls in grades 8-12 and the day school is from pre-kindergarten to grade 12.
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History
The school was founded in 1913 by Ela Hockaday in response to parental demand for a college preparatory school for girls. While the school is noted for its students' continuing on to a variety of prestigious universities today, early on the school sent many girls to Smith College). The first class consisted of only fourteen students. Miss Hockaday's friend, Sarah Trent, was one of the first teachers at the school and was influential in its development.
Perhaps due to its lack of religious affiliation and the unconventional lifestyle of its founder, who was a great friend of Gertrude Stein, Hockaday grew into an institution with a reputation for feminism. Miss Hockaday founded her school on four cornerstones that were to form the basis of the students' educations: character, courtesy, scholarship and athletics. Today, the Founder's Day award is the most noteworthy a graduating senior can receive; the honour is given to the girls who best exemplify these four cornerstones. Community service and participation in the fine arts have also become hallmarks of the school.
The school today
Hockaday has occupied its current campus in a residential area of Northwest Dallas since 1961. The enrollment is approximately 1000 students from pre-K to 12, about 450 in the Upper School. The student to faculty ratio is approximately 10:1, and 100% of graduating seniors go on to college.
The school colors are green and white, and the current uniform for Upper and Middle School consists of saddle-oxfords, white dress-shirts or polo-shirts, and a uniform green and white plaid skirt. Girls may also wear solid green skirts, or if they are in Upper School a green and white kilt. Green blazers are added on "dress uniform days" for grades 5-11, while seniors gain the privilege of wearing white blazers. It is viewed as a rite of passage to earn one's white blazer, along with the class ring, at the end of junior year. In the past the uniform has included such dated items as green and white plaid bell-bottoms.
The school crest bears a unicorn, but in the 1980s the student council voted to adopt the "Killer Daisy" as a mascot. This stems from the nickname for students at Hockaday: Hockadaisies. Though there has been debate among the students to change the mascot over the past few years, it has remained unchanged.
Hockaday's brother school is the St. Mark's School of Texas, which is located a few miles away. Hockadaisies may take classes that are not offered on their home campus at St. Mark's instead and vice versa. This allows the two schools to offer subjects that are in lower demand while keeping options open for their students. For instance, French, AP Statistics, and AP Studio Art are taught exclusively at Hockaday, while German, AP Economics, and Psychology are taught exclusively at St. Mark's, and Drama is split. AP Environmental Science, which used to be taught exclusively at St. Mark's, has been started up separately at Hockaday.
Student Life
The school has a well-known community service program, which is in conjunct with that of St. Mark's, and which requires every upper school student to perform at least 15 hours of service every year. It also sponsors sports and academic teams which go on to succeed at high levels; most notable is the success of its debate team, which ranks in the top five nationally for secondary schools.
Famous alumnae
- Barbara and Jenna Bush (attended until their father's election to Governor of Texas) [1] (http://quest.cjonline.com/stories/040400/gen_private.shtml)
- Patricia Richardson [2] (http://www.nndb.com/people/577/000044445/)
- Lisa Loeb
- Chandler Roosevelt Lindsley, granddaughter of Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt
[3] (http://privateschool.about.com/od/privateschoolfaqs/f/famousalums.htm)
External link
- The Hockaday School website (http://www.hockaday.org/)