Headmaster's Welcome Message

Headmaster's Welcome

When the monks at St. Anselm's decided to open a college preparatory school in 1942, Fr. Thomas Verner Moore knew, from his work with adolescents at The Child Center at Catholic University, that one of the least-served groups of students in the American secondary school system was the gifted and talented. This was before there were any magnet schools, or before there were the specialized schools for science and technology that exist today. So, following the tradition of the English Benedictine Congregation (known for the quality of its secondary schools), Fr. Thomas, as prior, and Fr. Austin McNamee, as first headmaster, forged ahead to establish what was then known as the "Priory School", a four-year high school dedicated to scholarship.

We are still committed to the classical view that the essential discipline in a school is that imposed by a demanding and enriching curriculum. This curriculum is based upon a balanced and thorough exposure to the major academic disciplines: language, literature, religion, mathematics, the natural and physical sciences, history and the fine arts. Over the years, the school has added grades six, seven, and eight (thus dividing St. Anselm's into a Middle School and an Upper School), and our curriculum has been expanded to incorporate more mathematics, science and computer studies, including Advanced Placement courses in all the major academic subjects.

The educational program in the school is a very demanding one. All courses are designed to give the maximum challenge to students of above-average intelligence.

The aim of the program continues to be to provide our students with an education of sufficient breadth and depth to make them moral persons with an appreciation for academic tradition and to prepare them for the contemporary scientific, computer world of the twenty-first century.

St. Anselm's Abbey School offers a single college preparatory program. It includes seven years of theology, English, mathematics, social studies; at least six years of science; at least five years of modern language; and at least four years of Latin. Before the fifth form (junior year), very few course options are permitted other than choice of music or chorus, Spanish or French.

Students may also opt for German and Greek in the Upper School where fifth and sixth form students (juniors and seniors) also have a wide range of electives in the natural sciences, social studies and the fine arts.

Most of the courses in the last two years are specifically aimed at qualifying students for the College Board Advanced Placement Examinations. Our students do very well in these examinations, hence allowing many to enter a college or university as sophomores. Since our first graduating class in 1946, St. Anselm's has had 100% of its students accepted into a college or university, many of whom go on to receive advanced degrees.

A Benedictine school is an exercise in the building of a sense of community. We try to make every student achieve an understanding of his own importance and dignity as a member of this community. Our code of behavior is one that is firm but which at the same time possesses a certain Benedictine gentleness. We hope that we may introduce to our boys something of the spirit of monastic life in the twenty-first century, to put them in touch with the tradition of dedication, service, prayer and scholarship that has been the life force of the Benedictine way of stability for the last 1500 years.

Our motto, Pax in Sapientia (peace in understanding or wisdom), is achieved through the Benedictine adage of ora et labora (prayer and work). Our students still have a daily contact with the dedication and scholarship of the monks, along with an exposure to an enthusiasm for learning that transcends the centuries.