Princeton
Latin
Academy
Princeton
Science
Academy
Princeton
Latin Academy
Foundation
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Events
"With multiple yearly events--the opera, the Olympiad, school plays, etc...--we were not only given an increased awareness of classical culture, but also the opportunity to build experiences with one another, and learn to make a collective effort into something that we were proud of and could display." "At the same time, events such as Giordano Bruno Day, the Literary Magazine, and the talent show allowed us to show our individual strengths in areas other than the arts. This allowed students whose strengths are rather in the maths, sciences, independent writing, or who had their own unique talents to showcase themselves in their own way. - Salima Bahri, PLA Class '03 Our first event of the school year is International Dinner. Its sole purpose is social. It gives parents a chance to get to know each other on an informal basis in an atmosphere of good food and good wine. Parents new to the School are welcomed by long time parents and many visiting alumni. The event was initiated by the parents themselves in the first year of the School. The different foods prepared by the families reflect the many cultural backgrounds of our Princeton Latin Academy community. Halloween at Princeton Latin Academy is different. The costume parade is set to the music of Bellini's Norma, the March of the Druids and culminates with all the children on stage together in colorful lighting. As they march off, each child tells the audience his name and who he is for Halloween. Following the parade, the children have fun performing skits they have adapted from literature. In the past, students have staged their renditions of Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Shelley's Frankenstein, H.G. Well's War of the Worlds and Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray. The performances are in keeping with traditional Halloween spookiness, while still exposing the children to great works of literature. After the performance, the parents provide apples, cinnamon donuts and cider. At Princeton Latin Academy, we celebrate Thanksgiving with speeches and songs. Our senior students recite the words of great men and women, who understood the wisdom of gratitude for life and liberty. From Lincoln's hopeful words on the inauguration of Thanksgiving to John Adams' plea to reign in government excesses, to Patrick Henry's and John Paul Jones' impassioned cries for liberty, our celebration puts the children in touch with the wisdom of our founding fathers. As part of our celebration, the younger children sing and play music. Finally, no day of thanksgiving would be complete without a feast, graciously provided by our School's parents. As we approach the month of December every year, the sun diminishes and darkness pervades the landscape of our lives. Light and joy are most needed at the Stygian hour of the winter solstice. Princeton Latin Academy, therefore, sheds some intellectual illumination on the season by teaching the children the various ways that man, with all his poetic genius and faith, comes to terms with it. The Romans had their Saturnalia; the Jews, their Hanukah; the Christians, their Nativity -- all feasts of light. To be informed of these matters is an essential part of a classical education, for there is no culture without religion. Saturnalia is the celebration of all these events. Dante Alighieri, the great Italian poet of the fourteenth century, has a place of honor at Princeton Latin Academy. As a creator of language in its highest form, Dante not only composed one of the most enduring poems in history, but also defined the future of the Italian language. In honor of him, and in celebration of poetry and language, students select, memorize and recite poems before an audience of parents and teachers. Students choose works from the greatest English-speaking poets, ranging from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Yeats and Dylan Thomas. In addition, and unique to Princeton Latin Academy, some students recite and translate poems from other languages. In the past, these have included sections from Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's La Vita Nuova, the proem from Homer's Iliad, and poems from Garcia Lorca and others. Following the performance, the faculty selects the ten best recitations and awards each of the winners with a traditional laurel wreath. A few weeks later, these ten students will have an opportunity to help their teams score points at the School's Olympiad as they represent their teams in the poetry competition. On February 17, 1600, an Italian philosopher and scientist, after refusing to recant his unorthodox theories on the universe, was burned at the stake. His ideas about an infinite universe filled with stars and planets where no one place was the center, were at the time founded on unscientific assumptions. His grasp of astronomy was tenuous at best, down right crude at worst. Everywhere he went, his eccentricities and adamant adherence to his own beliefs drove powerful patrons away. Giordano Bruno, however, remains an important hero of science, because, despite the threat of pain and death, Bruno, unlike Galileo, refused to deny his ideas. He is the father of modern cosmology. At Princeton Latin Academy, we have honored his courage by making him the patron of our Science Fair. In preparation for the fair, students must choose a scientist, prepare a display and write a paper about their scientist. At the event, the students present their work and answer questions posed by teachers, parents and guests. Awards are given to the three best presentations with particular emphasis on a student's ability to respond to questions about his work. Anchises, the prototypical grandparent of all classical literature, was the father of Aeneas and the grandfather of Ascanius. Fleeing burning Troy, Aeneas, with his little son Ascanius running behind, carries upon his shoulders the aging Anchises, who is clutching in his hands the Penates, the household gods. The Penates symbolize the traditions handed down by our forefathers that are never to be forgotten or discarded. We salute and praise our grandparents on this day for preserving for us those traditions and for reminding us never to give up our values. For this reason, Princeton Latin Academy has chosen Anchises as the Patron of Grandparents Day. At a time when music and art are diminishing in schools, Princeton Latin Academy celebrates beauty. Every spring, as part of Anchises Day, the children stage a concert for their parents and grandparents. Following the concert, everyone attends the School's art show where the projects the children have been working on since September are on display. On April 21, the day upon which Rome was founded in 753 BC, Princeton Latin Academy celebrates its anniversary. The day is marked by a formal dinner and dance for the 6th, 7th and 8th-graders. Teachers and students dress up in their finest -- boys usually in tuxedos and girls in evening dresses. The formal consists of a delicious sit-down dinner followed by a night of dancing. Every spring, the headmaster invites the eighth-grade class and the faculty to spend the weekend in Washington D.C. The visit begins in the National Gallery with our own art teacher as the unofficial guide. The students find their own favorite works and enjoy identifying paintings they have studied in art history class. After a relaxing dinner, everyone visits the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. The following morning, we visit the Capitol and the World War II memorial before returning home. The Olympiad is our field day. The students are grouped into two teams -- purple and gray, the School colors. The day is marked with lots of enthusiasm and fun. In addition to numerous events, including races, a poetry recital and kickball, the children enjoy pizza and ice cream. As of 2008, Purple has eleven wins, Gray nine. The graduation ceremony at Princeton Latin Academy is unique in that each graduate prepares his own farewell address and delivers it to the faculty, parents and alumni. After these testimonials, the headmaster reads the names of all the School's alumni from the beginning and then inducts the new graduates. Any alumni present, upon hearing their names, join the headmaster on stage ready to welcome the recent graduates. The event ends with the reductio -- the headmaster ceremonially returns each of the recent graduates to his parents. Then, the parent of the senior student, the student who has spent the most years at the Academy, toasts the School. Though not as intense and emotional as Graduation, Promotion Day still carries ceremonial importance for the younger children. It is held on the Tuesday following Graduation. During this simple ceremony, awards including those for the National Geographic Geography Bee, Spelling Bee, Headmaster's Latin Exam, National Latin Exam, National Greek Exam, Dante Day and Giordano Bruno Day are given. To end the School year, the headmaster solemnly rings a bell -- each ring representing the number of years of the Academy's existence. |
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© 2011, Princeton Latin Academy, Inc. |
As a community of dedicated parents, intelligent teachers, and happy children, we celebrate our cultural heritage throughout the year. School events provide children with an opportunity to develop greater rhetorical skills, the result of which is self-confidence and poise. In order to reach that goal, Princeton Latin Academy has special events in which performance becomes the objective. These include many familiar ones. Unique to the Academy are two annual events that challenge the creative spirit of the children: Saturnalia and the Opera.