In Session

Takoma Education Center : Piney Branch Road and Aspen Street NW

School starts today in the District of Columbia and the State of Maryland. Universities and colleges, high schools and middle schools, and elementary and pre-K all go back to shiny classrooms. It's time for new pencils and crayons, books and paper, glue and tape, clothes, shoes, and backpacks--all the stuff that makes returning to the halls of education exciting for about five minutes!

L: Calvin Coolidge High School at 5th and Tuckerman Streets NW
R: Paul Junior High Charter School at 8th and Oglethorpe Streets NW

These are pictures of four of the schools in my neighborhood. I wanted to take snaps of kids and parents arriving, but given how weirded out people get by strangers with cameras around kids and sans children of their own, I decided to skip that.

Brightwood Elementary School : 13th and Nicholson Streets NW

To everyone returning to school, have fun! To those of you driving on the roads of Maryland and the District, please drive carefully. And to the kids in the Commonwealth of Virginia, enjoy your last week off!

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 08/08

Educating the Whole Person

Healy Hall--the iconic building on the campus of Georgetown University.
A statue of founder Father John Carroll sits in the plaza.

Founded in 1789, Georgetown University is the oldest private university in Washington, D.C., and the oldest Roman Catholic and Jesuit university in America. The school's origins really date back to 1634 with the establishment of the Province of Maryland by Jesuit settlers from Great Britain. After the American Revolution, Father John Carroll was appointed by Pope Pius VI to lead the Catholic Church in America. He then set about establishing a university, which officially opened for instruction on Dumbarton's Quadrangle on November 22, 1791.

Georgetown is an internationally renowned school that is still run and influenced by the Jesuits. The school has four undergraduate and four graduate programs with strong emphasis in law, business, medicine, and international relations. The school has its main campus at 37th and O Streets NW, its law campus on New Jersey Avenue NW near Union Station, and an all-girls school--Georgetown Visitation--near the main campus. Healy Hall, the main, iconic building on campus is named for university president Patrick Francis Healy and is a designated National Historic Landmark.

The back of Healy Hall: (L) Blending new architecture in with the old.
(R) Detail of a rain spout (gargoyle?) on Healy Hall.
(Click on images to enlarge.)

Among Georgetown's alumni are King Abdullah of Jordan; former U.S. President Bill Clinton, E.U. President José Manuel Barroso; Felipe de Borbon, Crown Prince of Spain; and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, President of the Philippines; as well as presidents of Panama, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Bosnia. Twenty U.S. state and commonwealth governors have graduated from Georgetown, including Luis Muñoz Marín the first democratically elected Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Numerous Cabinet members, U.S. ambassadors, judges, members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, business leaders, and military officers are graduates of Georgetown. The world of arts, media, and entertainment is also peppered with Georgetown grads. To see a full list, visit this Wikipedia link.

Cemetery on the grounds of the university:
the final resting place of the school's Jesuit community.

Georgetown is a powerhouse in several sports, including basketball, rowing, sailing, rugby, lacrosse, and track and field. The Hoyas lead the Big East Conference with seven championships and more than 20 appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Here's one final, notable fact: Georgetown graduates participate as volunteers in Peace Corps more than any other private university in the U.S.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 08/08

Historic

The Founders Library on the campus of Howard University

When you drive along Georgia Avenue just north of Florida Avenue, you pass Howard University, one of more than 100 historic black colleges and universities in the United States. Originally conceived after the Civil War as a seminary for black theologians, the idea grew to include building a university. In 1867, Congress and President Andrew Johnson approved a charter for the school and Howard University was born. It started with a college of liberal arts and a college of medicine and has since grown to include engineering, science, literature, dentistry, pharmacology, and a seminary. Named after Civil War Union General Oliver O. Howard, the university is considered to be among the Ivy League of historic black colleges and universities.

Here's a good talking point for your next dinner party: in order to carry the respected label "Historic Black Universities and Colleges" the school must have been chartered before 1964--prior to passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965--and must have as its "mission the education of black Americans."

Among Howard's most notable alumni are these people:

Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
L. Douglas Wilder, former Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the first African-American governor in the U.S.
Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Phylicia Rashad, Emmy Award-winning actress
Jessye Norman, Opera Singer
Andrew Young, U.N. Ambassador and former mayor

To name but a very few. If you have a chance to visit any of this city's many colleges and universities, be sure to visit this one.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 11/07

Solar

The BP Solar Decathlon 2007 on the National Mall with the Capitol in the background.

One of 20 sustainable, solar-powered houses featured in the decathlon.

This week was the BP Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C. This event features solar, sustainable houses built by teams of architectural and engineering students from universities across America and around the world. This year's teams ranged from Carnegie Mellon University to Technische Universitat Darmstadt (this year's winners), from Georgia Tech to Team Montreal, from Universidad de Puerto Rico to the University of Santa Clara. In all, 20 schools competed and built some pretty impressive homes of the future. If you get a chance, go next year. It's a lot of fun and they have educational sessions for the public.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 10/07.

R.E. Lee

Labor Day 2007: Part III, Sunday

Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.

Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.

The grave of Lee's horse, Traveller, outside the Lee Chapel on the grounds of Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.

Recumbent Lee, by Edward Valentine. The sarcophagus of Robert E. Lee in the Lee Chapel at Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. (Photo courtesy of the Lee Family Digital Archive.)

Lexington, Virginia, was the destination this past weekend. For those not familiar with Lexington, it lies at the foot of the Blue Ridge. Located in Rockbridge County, Virginia, Lexington was named after the town in Massachusetts where the American Revolution began. Most of the settlers in this valley were German and Scotch-Irish. The town was, among other things, fairly education-conscious and opened Liberty Hall Academy in the town. The town is also home to the nation's first state military academy, Virginia Military Institute (VMI.)

The school eventually fell on hard times and only emerged from ruin because of a generous bequest of $50,000 in stock from George Washington. The school changed its name to Washington College, in recognition of Washington's generosity. During the Civil War, the Union Army burned the neighboring military school--VMI, alma mater and employer of Stonewall Jackson and later George C. Marshall--but refused to burn Washington College because of its namesake. After Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, he rode into Lexington on his warhorse, Traveller, where he assumed the presidency of the college.

At the time Lee arrived in Lexington, the school only had 40 students. By the time of his death in 1872, the student body numbered 400. Lee was so loved, the school changed its name again and to this day it remains Washington & Lee University. For an excellent read of Lee's post-Civil War years, I'd recommend Lee: The Last Years. Lee is laid to rest, along with all of his family, in the R.E. Lee Chapel on the campus of Washington & Lee. He lies in a sarcophagus bedecked with a recumbent sculpture by Edward Valentine. Lee's horse, Traveller, is buried outside next to the church.

Zip: 24450

Photo copyright: Lee Family Digital Archive (Recumbent Lee), D.C. Confidential (All Other Pictures), 09/07.

VMI

Labor Day 2007: Part V, Sunday

Statue of Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.

Statue of General George C. Marshall, United States Army, on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.

In addition to Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, one of the Virginia Military Institute's (VMI) other famous figures was George C. Marshall, who graduated from the school in 1901. Marshall, related to the distinguished jurist and Supreme Court justice, John Marshall, had an equally distinguished career as a soldier and diplomat.

Following his graduation from VMI, Marshall entered the U.S. Army where he served in numerous overseas posts. He eventually served as aide-de-camp to General John J. Pershing. In addition to service in the Philippines and during World War I, Marshall entered World War II as a brigadier general. Marshall was only the second general at the time to earn five-star status. It was he who assigned Dwight D. Eisenhower as Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, Europe.

After World War II, Harry Truman appointed Marshall Secretary of State. In 1947, Marshall gave a speech where he outlined a plan for rebuilding Europe. The Marshall Plan helped Europe rebuild and modernize rapidly after the war that had devastated the continent. He went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Marshall would go on to be president of the American Red Cross and would briefly serve as Secretary of Defense for President Truman. Marshall died in 1959 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetary.

Zip: 24450

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential (09/07)