To our school upon the hillside, come and sing a rousing song…
As a school with such a longstanding history, Choate Rosemary Hall has borne witness to and experienced firsthand a number of significant historical events since its founding in 1890. Over the summer, Mr. Jonas Akins, who has been a history teacher at Choate since 2017, proposed a course that investigates the history of Choate and its surrounding area. This course, which is now set to be offered next spring, will provide an opportunity for students to fully appreciate how the present-day Choate experience fits into the events of the past.
An archives enthusiast, Mr. Akins has devoted plenty of time to familiarizing himself with Choate’s collection in the library. With help from archivist Ms. Stephanie Gold and previous archivist Ms. Judy Donald RH ’66, he was able to gain an understanding of the history of the School through his investigation of primary sources. He especially enjoyed perusing the Archives because of his fondness for teaching from primary sources, particularly manuscripts or unique items, like a tunic from the Choate School Battalion and kneelers from Rosemary Hall’s old chapel in Greenwich.
According to Mr. Akins, frequent feedback from other teachers on how much their students enjoyed investigating the Archives — often as standalone units in English and HPRSS courses — inspired him to develop a full course revolving around such study. “My hope is that students will be able to personalize their experience in the course, tailoring their research to areas of interest, like a dormitory in which they live, an extracurricular in which they participate, or even a famous alum,” he said.
Mr. Akins believes that diving deeper into the history of the School — or in his words, “really three schools: Rosemary Hall, Choate, and Choate Rosemary Hall” — will allow students to better understand how the Choate community came to be the way it is, while also studying Wallingford’s complex history. Mr. Akins has read about the history of the Quinnipiac people and the early years of European contact in Wallingford. Some of the other themes that he has come across during his research include the town’s silver industry, some remarkable weather events over the years, and the town-and-gown relationship.
Because of the wide scope of material available, he’s yet to draw up an exact syllabus for the new class. However, Mr. Akins intends for a large portion of the course to be student-oriented and has tailored the course to allow each individual student to independently explore their own areas of interest for two weeks.
“Doing archival research is a skill that will serve students well, even if they don’t go into a career as a historian,” said Mr. Akins, who explained that about a third of the course’s meetings would take place in the archives. “The research portion will be personally important to the student, and they’ll feel a sense of agency and also responsibility for understanding the topic they select.”
Now that it’s been presented to and approved by both the HPRSS department and the department chairs’ group, the course — titled Our School Upon The Hillside and numbered HI333 in reference to Choate’s street address, 333 Christian St. — will be offered in the spring term of the next academic year. Mr. Akins said, “If we don’t study how we got to where we are today, we’ve got no hope of shaping where we’re headed as a community.”
