Solebury School is a co-educational private boarding and day school located on a 140-acre (57 ha) campus in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania , in the United States. Solebury School's academic program features a college-preparatory curriculum with courses and electives in various subjects and a focus on interdisciplinary and experiential education models.
8-579: Solebury School was conceived by Robert Shaw, Laurie Erskine , Julian Lathrop, and Arthur Washburn in the early 1920s. It opened in September 1925 in rented quarters with four boys and four teachers. A year later, the founders purchased Michener Farm, which remains the institution's site. In 1949 the school merged with another local school, the Holmquist School for Girls, which had a similar educational philosophy and often shared events and productions. Solebury
16-514: A local AIDS fundraiser walk, Solebury School has raised thousands of dollars for AIDS organizations. In 2014, after several alumni claimed they had been sexually abused as students at Solebury, including by the current head gym coach, the school publicly issued a letter of acknowledgment and apology to them by mail in 2014. In a second letter to alums and parents, the school revealed its chief founder, Robert Shaw, had sexual relationships with his students. On January 26, 2017, Bucks County published
24-568: A radio, film, and television series with Erskine himself narrating the radio show. Erskine also created and narrated the radio program "Adventure Stories". Erskine was a staff writer with the Battle Creek , Michigan Enquirer newspaper. In 1925 he was one of the four organisers of the Solebury School for Boys in New Hope, Pennsylvania. At the start of World War II , Erskine was commissioned in
32-487: Is often described as a socially progressive or liberal institution. In the 1980s, a local activist and noted anarchist Abbie Hoffman would give speeches to the student body. The school hosts LGBTQ groups; it produced an entry about bullying for the It Gets Better Project in 2011 and has an active campus club which pertains to sexuality, which students and teachers attend together. By participating annually in
40-772: The Army of the United States Coast Artillery , eventually becoming a major in the 38th Anti-Aircraft Brigade from 1944 to 1945. He was awarded the Bronze Star and was discharged in 1946. During his Army service, Erskine wrote the texts for the United States Armed Forces Institute course for American citizenship. Erskine's writing subsided as he channeled his energy into developing the Solebury Method for Teaching Composition. His name lives on as
48-707: The United States in 1901, where both parents appeared in silent films. In 1916 Laurie Erskine was commissioned in the Royal Flying Corps , where he served in France. Following his demobilisation, Erskine was an editorial writer with the Detroit News from 1921 to 1922, until he began writing stories for boys in 1921. His most famous work was a series of books featuring Renfrew of the Royal Mounted that later became
56-669: The mid-1990s, there was a public sexual abuse scandal at Solebury between a music teacher and an underage student, which was settled in a civil suit in 1998. Laurie Erskine Laurie York Erskine (23 June 1894 – 30 November 1976) was a popular boys adventure author, educator, and co-founder of the Solebury School in New Hope, Pennsylvania , United States. Erskine was born in Kirkcudbright , Scotland, to actors Wallace Erskine and Ada Margery Bonney Erskine. The family travelled to
64-408: The results of a 2015 grand jury investigation detailing testimony considered credible by the district attorney from six former students alleging sexual abuse at Solebury School from the 1950s through 2005, identifying nine living adults formerly connected with the school who could be prosecuted. The report was critical of the Solebury School's campus culture as facilitating the abuse. Prior to this, in
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