A Perception Changed Through Time and Progress
by connie frontis ’67 dph
When I was attending the Day Prospect Hill School (DPH) between 1961 and 1967, I was glad to be going to an “all-girls” school. I firmly believed that single-sex schools were where we could best thrive academically. We didn’t have to worry about being too intellectually serious as students—the concern being that boys might not like us if we were too smart. Instead, we could be ourselves; we could excel, not be intimidated by boys, and not worry about how we looked. The teachers at DPH were an eclectic lot; most of them had not trained as teachers. They had gone to excellent colleges and were quite passionate about their respective fields whether it was French, Latin, English, History, Art, Modern Dance, or even Field Hockey. Some were young with spouses in graduate school and some had been teaching for decades, but all were very devoted. The lower school for grades 7 and 8 was in a beautiful old building on the other side of Prospect Street. It had been a private home with fireplaces, a rotunda, huge bathrooms with tubs, and an attic filled with Broadway costumes donated by our drama teacher who was married to an actor. Basketball and modern dance were in the old garage. The upper school building was mid-century with no architectural interest whatsoever. DPH was a place where we were encouraged to be serious students with almost no emphasis on our becoming “young ladies” although I do recall some walking with books balanced on their heads and I was once severely chastised for my unladylike behavior because a friend and I had been rolling down the hill on campus in our kilts. We lived in a world quite apart from boys aside from Glee Club choral concerts and mixers. Mixers involved our being transported by school bus to some distant prep school for dinner, dancing, and meeting boys. Once a year we had a dance with Hopkins boys but, being nearby, they were deemed much less interesting.
taught to write well. My papers always came back with lots of ink, many notations, and cross-outs, but decades later, whether writing a brief or a settlement proposal or drafting legislation, I recall Mrs. Tate, a formidable English teacher who helped me appreciate the importance of being precise, the possibility of persuasion, and the power of language. Decades after my graduation from DPH, our two children attended Hopkins between 1998 and 2007. I have also chaired a committee—the Distinguished Alumni and Fellows Committee— which brings me to campus a few times a year for the day. I see a school with outstanding faculty that remains serious about academics and where the female students show absolutely no reluctance to demonstrate their formidable intellectual capabilities. Young women assume many school leadership posts, including head of student government. Frequently, in assembly, many of the questions posed to speakers come from female students and even younger female students make announcements at assembly with confidence and enthusiasm. In classes I’ve attended, female students are fully engaged, asking questions, arranging follow-up contact with a visitor, etc. I see young women who demonstrate absolutely no concern about how the males in the school will view them; they do not worry about being too smart. I was sad when the schools merged, thinking that something important was lost. I have come to appreciate that the merged school is a much healthier place where young men and women can interact with each other in all sorts of settings on a daily basis. Today’s Hopkins students share a broader world view than we did. They are not only knowledgeable about and engaged with what is happening in the world, they are imbued with a strong sense that they have an important role to play and contributions to make. In addition to being an alum, Connie Frontis is a class correspondent, a past parent, and a dedicated volunteer for 20-plus years as head of the Distin- guished Alumni and Fellows Committee. Frontis is also a former member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors.
I value the education I received at DPH. Our teachers emphasized the importance of critical thinking and we were
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2023 • ISSUE 1 | VIEWS FROM THE HILL
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