NMH Magazine : Winter 2004

Nothing Endures But Change

One hundred and twenty-five years is a sizeable chunk of time. When Dwight L. Moody founded Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies in 1879, automobiles didn’t exist, airplanes were a dream, and computers, well, they weren’t even a thought bubble. 

Like the world at large, the school has gone through its own set of changes—and, as a dynamic institution, it will continue to do so. The art of change is to keep the core true and strong, a charge that NMH takes to heart. 

As the following timeline shows, NMH has been in constant pursuit of progress, thus living the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus: nothing endures but change.

1879 
World-famous evangelist D. L. Moody founds Northfield Seminary for girls, flouting conventional wisdom that women should not be educated; the school’s mission includes opening the “golden gate of opportunity” to young women from poor circumstances and providing a Christian education. The price per term is $50, half of which comes from annual gifts from supporters.

1881 
D. L. Moody establishes Mount Hermon School for boys with much the same rhetorical flourishes about providing opportunity for the needy. The school lacks an administrative head and an educational plan but has more applicants than it can admit; the first boy arrives in May. By late July there are 24 students at the school.

1883 
Evelyn Hall is appointed principal of Northfield and holds the post for the next 28 years. E. A. Hubbard becomes principal of Mount Hermon but is overwhelmed by the task and quits after a year. 

1885 
Mount Hermon establishes a formal curriculum made up of scientific, classical, and biblical courses of study.

1894 
A board of examiners from Harvard commends Mount Hermon for keeping its scholarly purpose despite “the primarily religious aim of the place.” In particular, the board lauds the school for abolishing its biblical course of study because, according to Mount Hermon administrators, it was “attracting an inferior class of pupils.”

1900 
Mount Hermon establishes a year-round academic program, incorporating its former summer school into the new schedule.

1904 
Agriculture becomes the first and only vocational department at Mount Hermon, an exception to the school’s philosophy that the boys, most already trained in a trade, should get a general education. Students in the agricultural program work on the farm and cultivate the school’s forests.

1926 
Due to declining enrollment in Mount Hermon’s agriculture classes, the department is dismantled.

1929 
Mira Wilson becomes headmistress of Northfield; under her 23-year tenure, the school’s scholastic standards rise steadily, students participate actively in the religious program, and social restrictions are loosened.

1932 
Elliot Speer, a liberal Christian, is appointed head of Mount Hermon. His progressive social and educational views prove irksome to some and inspiring to others. In a letter to the board of trustees, Speer writes, “Certainly we [the schools] do not believe exactly the same things which Mr. Moody believed.”

1932 
Northfield and Mount Hermon discontinue their preparatory programs and no longer offer seventh- and eighth-grade classes.
1940 Northfield is regarded as one of the preeminent girls boarding schools in the country, a reputation that endures for three decades.

1961 
Northfield’s domestic science department, which offered classes in such subjects as sewing and cooking, is disbanded. Mount Hermon sells its dairy herd, effectively ending its farm program.
Howard Jones becomes president of Northfield and Mount Hermon. Under his leadership, the schools enroll an increasing number of international students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Northfield becomes one of the first sites for the Upward Bound program.

1964 
Through a coed summer session called the Mount Hermon Liberal Studies Program, juniors and seniors can study abroad. By 1968, the program sends students to nine countries, including Japan, the USSR, and Brazil.

1970 
In February, President Howard Jones appoints a long-range planning committee to consider the schools’ futures, including coeducation. In October, trustees vote in principle to go coed. 

1971 
Trustees vote in January to merge Northfield and Mount Hermon into one coeducational school on two campuses, setting the opening date for fall ’71. NMH opens in September with 444 boys and 149 girls on the Mount Hermon campus and 174 boys and 367 girls at Northfield.

1975 
NMH resurrects the farm program.

1978 
Students are no longer obligated to take a course in Bible study, although they must fulfill religious studies requirements.

1980 
The English as a Second Language (ESL) department is formally established.

1985 
The school issues its first-ever written statement of philosophy, which emphasizes the importance of technology in an NMH education.

1997 
NMH innovates its academic program by replacing the traditional nine-period, 43-minute academic schedule with an extended-period schedule, in which students intensively study two major subjects per term. The school’s new interdisciplinary curriculum focuses on themes of technology, global citizenship, and environmental awareness.

2000 
The board of trustees embarks on a planning process to determine NMH’s needs and strategic direction. The design firm Sasaki Associates, working with Parsons Consulting Group, undertakes a master facilities plan, which recommends extensive changes and new buildings on each campus.

2002 
Keeping foremost the school’s educational mission while also considering nationwide financial trends, the board reevaluates NMH’s strategic direction.

2003 
The board considers educational and programmatic innovations to the school, including the possibility of downsizing and going to one campus. It commissions various studies, including an updated master facilities plan, an analysis of enrollment patterns and financial policies, and an alumni opinion survey, to supplement its decision making. It prepares to vote on a plan that will bring NMH into 
financial alignment and strengthen its educational program.

2004 
In January, the trustees vote to reduce the size of NMH to 600–750 students and to consolidate the school on the Mount Hermon campus.