A trip to England over the Christmas Break to see daughter Rebecca ’01, a junior at Wake Forest University who was in a study-abroad program from August through December, turned into an opportunity for David Rhodes, Darlington’s headmaster, to visit with administrators at Eton College. Founded in 1440 by King Henry VI, the prestigious Eton College is a secondary school for about 1,290 boys between the ages of 13 and 18, all of whom are boarders and live in 25 Houses.
Darlington President David Hicks knew the provost and headmaster and together they arranged for Rhodes to meet with Dr. Robert Stephenson, who is Eton’s lower master. “Eton is incredibly rich with tradition,” Rhodes said. “I was overwhelmed with the thought that people have come to sit in the classrooms and chapel pews each morning for hundreds of years.”
“My visit to the school helped me understand the heritage of the House system,” Rhodes said. “I was impressed with how much they stress academics at the school and yet I was reassured to hear that they have to deal with some of the same struggles and issues that any high school deals with.”
The College originally had 70 King’s Scholars or ‘Collegers’ who lived in the College and were educated free, and a small number of ‘Oppidans’ who lived in the town of Eton and paid for their education. Seventy scholars are still admitted by competitive examination and live together in one House and the remaining Oppidans are divided among the other 24 Houses.
Besides a large part-time staff, there are 143 masters and there is a governing body composed of a resident provost and vice-provost together with 10 nonresident lay fellows, successors from 1869 of the 10 priest-fellows of the original foundation.
Each House is presided over by a House master, who is responsible for the academic and personal welfare of his boys and for dealings with their parents. The House master is assisted by a ‘dame’, who looks after the health of the boys and the domestic affairs of the House. Every boy also has an academic tutor.
“I left thinking about how important Darlington’s traditions are to our own heritage,” Rhodes said.
