“Today’s Family” to feature Middlesex School of Concord, MA

(PRWEB) October 5, 2005 -- New Line Media Solutions is pleased to announce the selection of Middlesex School for the innovative, educational television series, Today’s Family. The school will be featured in a segment on “The Importance in Choosing the Right School,” and the show will air through a combination of ABC Family Channel nationally, and regionally on PAX-TV in many of the top markets nationwide.

Middlesex School is an independent, college-preparatory school for grades 9-12 with 350 students enrolled from 27 different states and 10 foreign countries. This renowned school offers young people the opportunity to live on campus (about 74% of students live on campus) or to attend as local day students. The outstanding curriculum is rich and demanding; a student to faculty ratio of 5 to 1, and an average class size of 11 allow for better classroom participation and individual attention. Curricular opportunities include an outstanding writing program; five languages; a research-grade observatory and robotics program; five different fields of sciences offered at the introductory, honors, and Advanced Placement levels; and independent study opportunities for seniors. The school’s comprehensive curricular and co-curricular programs are a testament to the belief that for over 100 years, the school has been committed to excellence in the development of all aspects of a young person's life.    

In 1901, Frederick Winsor founded Middlesex School as non-denominational, one of the first schools of its kind to understand that students from different religious backgrounds could learn together. From the beginning, Winsor’s mission was "to find the promise that lies hidden" in every student. One of Winsor's greatest achievements was the creation of the National Scholarship Program, which was the first of its kind at any secondary school. These scholarships brought students from every corner of the country and made Middlesex a truly national institution.

In a century of history, only five headmasters have led Middlesex School, and this longevity in leadership has been a great strength and hallmark. After Winsor in 1901, Lawrence "Monk" Terry was second from 1937 to 1964. Then, in 1974, David Sheldon became third headmaster, a period in which the school became co-educational and he began to include students from different cultures. While Deirdre Ling was the fourth head, Middlesex added Chinese to the curriculum, wired the entire campus for technology, and celebrated the school's centennial. In 2003, current head of school Kathleen Carroll Giles took over.

Music and drama have always had a central role in the life of the school. For almost 50 years, Middlesex was renowned for its performances of Gilbert & Sullivan musicals. Today, nearly one quarter of the student body sings in one of the choruses; large numbers of students take instrumental lessons and play in musical groups; and the theatrical productions, usually two major drama and one musical each year, are of a quality rarely seen at the high school level. The school also conducts travel abroad programs going to Spain, France, and China, as well as a writing program to teach skills in communication.

In addition, athletics have always been a hallmark of excellence at Middlesex. For six decades, the athletic offerings were simple: most boys played football in the fall and ice hockey in the winter, and had a choice of baseball or crew in the spring. Over years, more sports were added and the roster had grown considerably in which Middlesex fields 24 varsity sports now. Numerous students have earned all-league, all-state, and All American honors and have gone on to engage in athletics at all levels in college.

One tradition of this 350-acre campus has remained unchanged since the first graduate received his diploma in 1904: every graduate has carved a plaque that permanently adorns a wall of one of the school's main buildings. The largest numbers of graduates over the last four years now attend Brown, Harvard, Cornell, Tufts and Trinity Universities.

Middlesex believes in nurturing and encouraging children to reach fullest potential rather than molding them. As Head of School Kathy Giles notes, “our mission as an institution is to help our young people find their promise as students and as young people. We seek to inspire in our students the desire to seek understanding of themselves and of the larger world and help them bring their strengths, talents, and best efforts to bear in becoming powerful and positive contributors to that world.” For more information, please visit www.middlesex.edu.