The Spence School is an American all-girls private school in New York City, founded in 1892 by Clara B. Spence.
Overview
Spence has about 740 students, with grades K-4 representing the Lower School, 5-8 representing the Middle School, and 9-12 representing the Upper School. Lower school average class sizes are 16-18 and middle and upper school average class sizes are 13-14. The student: teacher ratio is 7:1 and students of color in all grades make up approximately 33 percent of the student body.
For the 2017-18 academic year, tuition and fees total $49,980 for all grades. Its sister schools are the all-girls Brearley School, the all-girls Chapin School and the all-boys Collegiate School, all in New York City. Forbes magazine ranked Spence ninth on its "America's Best Prep Schools" list in 2010.
History
The Spence School was founded in 1892 by Clara B. Spence, who was its head for 31 years. The school's motto is "non scholae sed vitae discimus" (Latin for "Not for school, but for life we learn"). The first building was located on New York City's West 48th Street. The school once had a boarding option, but all current girls are day students.
Clara B. Spence described her school as: "A place not of mechanical instruction, but a school of character where the common requisites for all have been human feeling, a sense of humor and the spirit of intellectual and moral adventure."
Spence read from Shakespeare in dramatic declamation every week. She was known for her conservative comportment and strictness, but also her devotion to women's rights. She arranged for Edith Wharton, Helen Keller, and George Washington Carver to speak at the school. Isadora Duncan taught dance classes.
In a commencement address from an unknown year, Spence said that cultivating imagination was an important skill, since “sympathy, that great bond between human beings, is largely dependent on imagination—that is, upon the power of realizing the feelings and the circumstances of others so as to enable us to feel with and for them.”
The school has been located on East 91st Street since 1929.
Academics
Spence offers a liberal arts and science curriculum, including programs in the arts and foreign languages. In a Worth magazine study, out of the 31,700 private and public high schools in the United States, Spence ranked the sixth most successful school in the country in placing its graduates in Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
Notable alumnae
Serena Altschul, broadcast journalist
Madeleine Astor, Titanic survivor
Maiken Baird, Academy Award-winning film producer
Frances Baldwin, artist
Edith Bouvier Beale, socialite
Georgina Bloomberg, equestrienne, daughter of Michael Bloomberg
Doris Caesar, sculptor
Eleanor A. Campbell, M.D., physician and founder, Judson Health Center
Huguette M. Clark, artist and philanthropist
Melissa Doi, businesswoman
Lady Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, philanthropist and anti-communist
Elisabeth C. Draper, interior decorator
Ruth Wales du Pont, socialite, philanthropist, and classical composer
Dawn French, British comedian, star of French and Saunders and The Vicar of Dibley Helen Clay Frick, philanthropist and art collector Caroline Gorman, singer Francine du Plessix Gray, author and literary critic Angelia Lawrance Morrison Harris, First Lady of North Carolina Janet Hobhouse, novelist and biographer Nancy Hopkins, molecular biologist Jade Jagger, jewelry designer Bonnie Jenkins, public service Jill Kargman, actress, author, writer Jane Kim, politician Margaret Carnegie Miller, philanthropist Alley Mills, actress Elizabeth Montgomery, actress Alicia Munnell, Peter F. Drucker Professor of Management Sciences at Boston College Sara Wiborg Murphy, socialite Dorothy Klenke Nash, neurosurgeon Gwyneth Paltrow, actress Mary Ellis Peltz, music critic, poet, and first chief editor of Opera News Karen Polle, equestrian Marjorie Merriweather Post, philanthropist Sally Pressman, actress Louise Goff Reece, politician Evette Rios, lifestyle expert Emmanuelle Grey "Emmy" Rossum, actress Natalie Mai Vitetti, socialite Kerry Washington, actress Electra Havemeyer Webb, arts patron Caroline Beaumont Zachry, psychologist